Readers Summary:

How did my last biohack go from an idea to a plan of action in 3 weeks?

Many of you may not know this, but I was asked to do to a speech in Nashville in March of 2012. I have to say with about 6 days to prepare it was rushed, but it was a lot of fun. I want to publicly say thank you to Misty Williams and Michael Hart for making this happen.

In my talk, I told 1,200 people live on stage about the three thought experiments I came up with after reading, “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. I actually conceptualized the Ancient Pathway soon after the reading was done but where the thought experiments came to me, was at the foot of Michelangelo’s David in Florence, when I was looking at him from behind. I realized that the major difference between him and I, was the world we both were living had radically changed in 500 years. From this insight I realized that circadian biology was the the major difference in David’s perfection and my obesity.

From this spark of wisdom, I realized that obesity was an inflammatory brain condition. Because it was so, I could then reconstruct a signaling sequence to confuse my hypothalamus using signals from my vagus nerve and from the foods I ate using timing. Learning how the brain rewired in neural deafness using a cochlea implant made this easy game for me as a neurosurgeon.

I added Cold Thermogenesis to this protocol to gain a stunning weight loss result in 11 months. The first two people, other than myself, to benefit from the Leptin Rx reset, where my son, Konnor and my nephew Kyle. I documented their results in a talk as well as a stunned audience gasped at the pictures and the time frames.

I went on to talk about telomere biology and how this pathway might keep us young and healthy if we lived in it for the majority of our life. I spoke about Elizabeth Blackburn’s work and subsequent Noble Prize in 2009. I mentioned Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, the Sherpa’s and NASA astronauts and how they all had amazing capabilities at some level that was also tied to the cold.

I mentioned Mr. Wim Hof and his truly amazing journey from a circus performer to a serious bio hacker, who modern science is now studying intently. Ray Cronise is working with Wim closely now in the Arctic. After viewing Wim’s own TEDx event in 2010, I knew his abilities were not special to him, but tied to the cold. I knew they were built in by Mother Nature to each and everyone of us. Wim just happened to be cold adapted and he uncovered some of the amazing abilities this pathway holds for us who choose to live in it. Take a look at this to show you what Wim has proven to modern science today.

Wim injected himself with endotoxins from dead bacteria via an IV and did not get sick. In fact, he raised his own endogenous cortisol to offset the toxin effects. This ability is biochemically expected in my theory, I proposed in CT-6 blog I wrote. It is clear from Wim’s video, his doctors do not know that this is precisely how the human brain reacts to cold when it is exposed to cold.

POMC is increased in the hypothalamus when a mammal is cold and it is cleaved into ACTH and alpha MSH. The ACTH increases our cortisol production to provide us with ultimate immunity. Ironically, Wim showed this exact ability in his own testing in the video I just asked you to watch. Coincidence or not?

Wim was not unique in using testing done upon himself to prove the critics wrong. Dr. Edward Jenner did the same thing in the late 1700’s. He received this advice from the great physician, William Harvey during his training. In 1770 Jenner became apprenticed in surgery and anatomy under surgeon John Hunter and others at St George’s Hospital. The famous physician, William Osler recorded in his writings, that Hunter gave Jenner, some very famous advice in medical circles during this time.

He told him, “Don’t think; but try.” Jenner did just that. He was a man of action. The disease devastating mankind, at this time, was small pox. Voltaire recorded that 60{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of the population caught smallpox and 20{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of the population died of it. In 1765, Dr Fewster published a paper in the London Medical Society entitled “Cow pox and its ability to prevent smallpox”, but he did not pursue the subject further. A farmer named Benjamin Jesty, successfully vaccinated and induced immunity with cowpox in his wife and two children during a smallpox epidemic in 1774. It appears that Jenner read the 1765 paper and made the observation that Jesty’s innoculation of his own family may have saved their lives from small pox. Jenner went on to theorize that milkmaids were generally immune to smallpox.

Jenner hypothesized that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox protected them from the human version called smallpox. In May of 1796 Jenner injected an 8 year old boy with cowpox. He also injected 23 other people, including his two surviving children, and they all became immune to small pox. His discovery was hotly debated by medicine of the day, but the science prevailed. His discovery was revolutionary because he refused to conform to the standards of the day. He let the findings and data dictate where he should go, and what he should do about it.

In 1977, Dane Miller, a PhD, was working on Titanium alloys and felt they offered huge advantages to modern medicine in orthopedic implant development but there was a lot of opposition to this at the time. Moreover there was no data to prove his assertions true. So what did he do? He pulled a page from Jenner’s playbook and went to his garage and cut himself open and placed a titanium rod in his arm and left it there for 9 months before he told anyone, to prove that titanium could be used in a human.

Then we have the story of Galileo. In 1610 the Catholic Church made all the rules and they said that the skies were dominated by an Aristotelian scientific view of the universe. Galileo believed that the banished Copernican theory was, in fact correct, because of discoveries he made with his new telescope by viewing Venus and Jupiter. It turns out he was right, and the conventional wisdom dogma was wrong again.

A more recent example of “thinking differently” was that of Dr. Barry Marshall from Australia. He and his wife came up with the idea that all human ulcers were not caused by stress, as modern medicine believed at the time in 1984. Instead, he believed that a spiral bacteria caused it. He could not test his theory on primates because primates are not susceptible to this bacteria, as humans are, because of how our gut evolved. H. Pylori experiments failed in piglets and in primates.

So what did Barry Marshall do? He drank a petri dish of H. Pylori and then he performed a endoscopic procedure on himself to prove his theory correct. He then treated his own ulcers with antibiotics for a cure. Modern medicine called him a “quack” for a long time. There was big business around the surgical treatment of ulcer disease back then. So what happened to Dr. Marshall? He won the Nobel Prize for his discovery in 2005. So he went from crazy and a quack in 1984 to a genius in 2005. Again, this is another example of where thinking outside the box helped humanity.

In 2010, I had a general surgeon in my hospital become acutely quadriparetic and have to have emergency surgery to save his spinal cord functioning. I talked about his case at my Paleo Fx lecture in Austin. The case shocked many in the audience. After his surgery, he did not improve, and his partner, a friend of mine, suggested he come see me. His dad was a neurosurgeon, so, I did not know what to expect from him. After meeting with him, and hearing his story and seeing the outcome, I realized he felt his career was over. I told him that if he checked the conventional wisdom we both learned in medical school at the door, that I might help him. In 6 weeks he went from not being able to walk or use his dominant hand to being able to run up stairs and coach his children’s soccer game.

In two months, he was back to work full time with very little problems noted. I used some of the things I learned in the Ancient Pathway to help Brent regain his function and life. I introduced him to the paleolithic diet and to cold thermogenesis. Yes, I have a video of him too. Those of you who were at Paleo fx heard and saw his story.

Then in November 2011, Dr. Terry Wahl’s TEDx video on curing her Multiple Sclerosis hit the internet. Terry inspired me to write my book. She used only her version of the paleolithic diet to reverse secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis. Her story captured the hearts of many and really caught hold in the paleosphere. It caught medicine off guard too, and I loved it. After her talk she motivated me to step up my game. I decided to execute the third and final thought experiment that I originally had at the foot of the statue of Michaelangelo’s, David. It was the hardest of the 3 experiments to complete, because I knew what it meant I had to do.

I had to perform the first ever evolutionary directed human experiment on a human, to prove that the paleolithic diet is the preferred diet of the Ancient Pathway. Moreover, that the Ancient Pathway still exists in all humans today by performing a surgery on a human without any antibiotics or local anaesthetics or narcotic pain meds peri-opreratively. Finding someone to agree to this was not going to be easy. Moreover, I had to raise the stakes to prove that immunity is up regulated in the cold by using a “nasty” bacteria that modern medicine has trouble dealing with.

I knew that if I could use Cold Thermogenesis to block all the pain and use the cold to upregulate immunity by raising cortisol, that this could help modern man immensely. So what did I do? I could not ask a modern human to do this ethically, so I asked the one person who I knew could consent to it. I used myself. I sent the pictures of the event to a CBS reporter I met at Paleo Fx 2012. I pulled the same page from the play book as the other rule breakers above did, to prove a point.

On January 9th 2012, I decided to perform the first ever evolutionary directed clinical experiment on a human being that I know of. I had an elective surgery done on myself. I wrote about the event and the evolutionary reasons in my book. Yes, after it was all completed, I told the surgeon and my team. These people work with me daily, so I wanted to make sure they knew about it before anyone else did. I also wanted them to know why I did it too, and I showed them why too.

Some, in the paleosphere think this was a risky move. It is only risky when you do not know or understand all the factors involved. I did not think this was risky at all based upon what I knew and what Wim Hof already showed me observationally in the video above. The hysteria that I have witnessed about this event is clearly made by people who have no clue how observational clinical studies can lead to dramatic changes in understanding in science. Barry Marshall knew he had no risk before he drank the H. pylori because he knew he could cure it. I felt the same way. Cold lowers our infection risk because it changes the density of water and allows our immune system to work better while it slows the biochemistry of bacteria. In fact, this move has been used by many others before me too. I gave many examples at how this method was used in medicine and industry earlier in this blog. My tact was not new at all; others have used it to make a point to doubters in the recent past. It appears many are unaware of this.

My hypothesis for this evolutionary directed experiment was that I would not get an infection or need any pain medications, if in fact the Ancient Pathway was still buried in my peripheral and central nervous system by Mother Nature. I felt the risk was very low because I had a ton of data I collected the last 6.5 years, showing me it was present in all mammals for an evolutionary reason. Humans are still classified as mammals by science last I checked, so I went ahead with my third experiment confidently.

Why did I do this?

What made this all worthwhile for me? Well, let me tell you about Mr. Lonnie Daniels. He has been a patient of mine for two years. Up until my Jan 9th experiment modern healthcare could not help him further. He was relegated to pain management for his condition because he was too high risk for a surgical option. This caused him to accepted limited mobility and he even had to resort to use of wheelchair to live. He is a very fragile T2D who was not a candidate for any major spinal surgery because of his poor medical condition.

When he came to visit me once again in November of 2011, he was no longer able to walk into my office and he was in a wheel chair. He begged me to help him. See, Mr. Daniels has a zest for life, and he was not happy with the hand he was currently dealt. He is a very accomplished musician and he wanted to live life on his terms and not on the terms his health was dishing out to him. I told him that if he was willing to make some lifestyle changes that were dramatic immediately, that I might be able to help him. I told him that I needed him to eat a strict ketogenic Epi-paleo diet right away, and that he had to begin to ice his lower back and thighs for me daily. He told me the request sounded odd, but that if I was going to try to help him he would do anything at this point because no one else had any answers for him.

Lonnie is a fabulous man and person. Lonnie did exactly what I told him. I went on to tell Lonnie that I was taking a few weeks off in early January to test this theory out in humans before I could use it to help him in his upcoming surgery. I told him that if the experiment flopped, I would not be able to operate on him and I would call him at once to cancel the surgery. He understood, and I told him I would call him on January 10th to let him know if it worked. Well, long story short, it did work. I immediately scheduled Mr. Daniels for a major spinal reconstruction operation on January 27th 2012.

I took the success of my idea, directly, to help Mr. Daniels less than three weeks later. He was high risk for developing an infection, because he was a fragile diabetic, and the proposed procedure he was having had a high complication rate in his case. In a healthy human, this operation would call for a 5-7 day recovery in the hospital with a 3 −4 week stay in a rehab facility. During this time he would be on high dose narcotics to control his pain. This alone could lead to other new problems like bowel obstruction or mental confusion or a fall. The total recovery for this operation is 3-6 months in a normal person. In Mr. Daniels case, he might never recover, or be worse off. Mr. Daniels knew all this going in and told me he could no longer live the life he was living.

Before surgery I made sure Lonnie was still eating the diet I prescribed and using the cold. He was. I told him that in his post operative state, he was not going to like me much because I was going to freeze him on a 50 degree sheet of ice. I told him I would give him a narcotic pain pump to control his pain and I was going to start some medications on him that were not ordinary for this condition to help facilitate the cold in healing him and increasing his immune system. He consented after knowing all the risks and benefits of the procedure and he then had a four long surgery to open and completely reconstruct his spine.

In this surgery I made a ten inch incision in his back from skin to spinal level on both sides and then proceeded to place 8, four inch screws in his back, while decompressing 80 years worth of osteoarthritis and degeneration caused by his longstanding diabetes and medical co-morbities. Lonnie tolerated the surgical procedure and anesthesia risks the day of surgery. He left the hospital in 2.5 days, far shorter than the prediction that one would find in most spinal textbooks of today. He used very little narcotics from his PCA pump because the ice blanket took most of his pain away. The ice sheet was tough on him for sure, but he endured it because I told him it was a must to get him through this operation safely. In the end, it worked well for Lonnie.

His operation was several orders of magnitude greater than the one I had done on myself. If this worked on him I knew that this was a huge clinical “observation” I had made. This observation might be the jumping point to new research to lower pain medication use and help decrease infection rates in surgery. Moreover, he also carried huge risks for infection because he was a diabetic with large metallic foreign bodies placed in his back during the surgery. Lonnie got no infection at all during this and he also was in a hospital and rehab facility where MRSA is a present in abundance. He was a t high risk for DVT too and he was not placed upon any medications to prevent it, and he got no DVT either.

In fact, he healed up faster than a person without diabetes, or who was 80 years old! He spent only 5 total days at rehab. I still find this hard to fathom. This was better than I thought he would do. When he was at rehab, I got reports from the rehab team that he was playing his banjo for other patients as they recovered. He had no pain and only a short decrease in stamina. I think what he calls a decrease in stamina and what I consider a decrease in stamina for a fresh post op 80 yr old diabetic is different. What Lonnie did was nothing short of remarkable, to me, or to his family.

In the hospital and the rehab facility, he used very little pain medicine too. He went home after just 5 days in rehab. He came to see me in clinic about post op day fourteen and he had a big smile on his face. Lonnie’s face showed the results of cold thermogenesis when he came back to see me two weeks after his operation. He walked in, with no wheelchair, walker, or walking stick and handed me his pain medications and told me this was the best he felt in 20 years! I was dumbfounded. I thought he would do well……..but not this well. Here is the video Lonnie made with me about two weeks after his surgery.

I spoke about this case at my Nashville talk. Doing talks is all about sharing good ideas. I think my theory about the Ancient Pathway is an idea worth sharing because the implications are immense for modern healthcare. Ideation without execution of the idea just leads to deletion of that idea. I no longer think my idea can die on the vine.

The clinical results I am generating now in my clinic using what I learned from my own surgery on January 9th are nothing short of remarkable. I have many of them documented now. I was the first human to show a remarkable recovery with no pain or infection. Lonnie Daniels is the second. There are others too now.

My last point to all of you reading this is simple. Sometimes to solve a problem we have to think differently about how to do it to become successful. Many of my critics have said what I did to myself was reckless. I never believed it was reckless because I already knew the concept was solid and theory had a ton of supporting evidence present if they just had looked as I had. It is only reckless, when there is no evidence supporting it. They believed that there was none, hence their false beliefs.

I knew differently. Moreover, just because the critic is unaware of the supporting evidence, should not stop the person with the idea to further our progress. What was not present to them, was the written or experimental “proof of the concept” explained in modern hominids of today. On January 9th, 2012, I proved to myself, that the Ancient Pathway was present in me.

On January 27th I proved it was present in our species and it confirmed what Wim Hof led me to believe. Wim is a trailblazer. Critics will still doubt, and that is fine by me. In three weeks after my own surgery, I used what I had learned, to radically change the life of an elderly man who wanted help that modern medicine said was impossible. It also showed me that I could use it to help others get better where modern medicine could no longer help them.

Progress doesn’t just have to happen in the laboratory or on a research bench or via a conventional randomized controlled trial. This is a neolithic thought with no foundation. Sometimes being “directionally accurate” is all it takes to help a human clinically. This is why medicine is both an art and a science. The things that trip up a scientist, do not have to make a clinician trip, if they evaluate the clinical risk and deem it safe on a human before they apply it. I did just that, by doing it on me first.

Dane Miller, Barry Marshall, Einstein, Ghandi, Wim Hof, Dr. Terry Wahl, and many others have showed it can happen in every day life, through personal experiences, and challenging the status quo. Those personal experiences might help others quickly live a life that was closed to them in the older paradigm of health care. I took my experiment on January 9th and changed one man’s fortune on January 27th. I knew this biology was present in us, so there was no risk to me at all.

Sometimes the major question we face in life, is can we step outside our own comfort zone to make progress?

A Paleo fx leader posted something on my FB wall that makes a great point for all to consider. What was said, instead of criticizing me for doing what I did on myself on January 9th, why don’t we ask the following questions to researchers to spur further research/inquiry:

1) What was different about Wim Hof that allowed his immune system to be completely resistant to the endotoxin and/or MRSA? Is it just coincidence that he was cold adapted or not? In Wim’s case we know his cortisol levels were abnormally high to offset this according to the tests run on him during his own experiment. Dr. Kruse’s CT-6 blog lays that same foundational biochemistry in the neural circuits of the human brain. Is this also a coincidence? Why don’t we know about this in modern textbooks?

2) What if biochemistry and biologic research studies have reached incorrect conclusions based on the fact that they are primarily done in warm adapted mammals? Should a cold adapted set of studies be funded and undertaken to dispel/prove what Dr. Kruse alleges to be the case? Can this be proven today in humans using a clinical study or would it require a detailed expensive trial?

3) What if cold adapted patients start showing up at clinics after surgery for their post-op checkups and start handing the surgeons and clinicians their pain medications(unnecessary and unused)? Big implications for Big-Pharma and modern medicine, no? There would be big implications for chronic management of pain in both the home and clinical setting as well, no?

Doesn’t this make the reasonable case for why a ‘fresh look’ needs to be taken at the research, biologic assumptions and biochemistry of mammals (and humans) if there are any examples that this actually is possible?

The potential benefits and implications are just too big to ignore…

I appreciate that leader sticking their “neck out” into the oncoming arrows of the Paleo elitists and their followers. But as most people who uncover new biological discoveries…the science will eventually prove who is correct, and who is afraid to push the boundaries of our knowledge. The only thing in real question left now, is the relative speed the rest of the world catches up to the thinkers of the new concepts or theories. Now is the time to “research” the implications of the observation.

Sometimes the thinkers are not the discovers of new science or a thing at all. They just are more observant of present day paradox and ambiguity, and look to explain it, by using what they do know to be true. I think Jenner, Galileo, and Einstein all fit that bill too. It seems that the zeitgeist of today, with its inherent power can color the acceptance or rejection of new ideas. I think what has occurred in healthcare lately fits that bill to a T, as well. All things are subject to interpretation, and whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of the power of the day, and not to the ultimate truth it reveals. Frederick Nietzche was a smart dude for making that quote long ago.

In my view, there are far too many examples in our modern world where cold adaptation does amazing things for humans that we remain blind too today. This paradox has fascinated me for over a decade now. So, I decided to seriously look into it as an observant clinician would to see if I could somehow understand it to help my patients in some fashion. Moreover, it has been shown even to the lay public, in periodicals, that in biology, the genome may not be all that important in the grand scale of things.

It now appears the epigenome, which is controlled by environmental factors, is the most important factor that affects genetic expression of our genes and how we respond to food and hormones. Read this link for some eye opening findings that are true but the implications of most are currently not appreciated by my critics or by modern science for that matter because they have not been seriously studied.

What examples do we have to show this paradox?

Here is a small sample of a few articles that show many humans can do things the critics say they can’t do. Well, when we know it truly has occurred, instead of denying their existence as they have done to Wim Hof, maybe we should begin to look for reasons why they can do it. Maybe in those answers we might find something that can better humanity. We all have a duty to master the talents buried within us in my view.

E. Douglas Mawson recounts his expedition in his epic book, “Home of the Blizzard”: This Australian was a key figure in the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. His Australian Antarctic Expedition, which begun in December 1911, however, nearly saw the end of his adventures forever. He was the only survivor in his team after his fellow explorer, Lieutenant Ninnis, fell through a crevice with the dogs and supplies and were lost. The other member of his exploration team, Xavier Mertz, died from a combination of weakness, cold and vitamin A poisoning from eating dog livers. Ironically, Mawson fed the weaker Mertz the dog livers thinking they were more nourishing than the muscle tissue of the dogs which led to Hypervitaminosis A. Mawson, ironically was a vegetarian and he ate more of the skeletal muscle and less of the husky liver offal, continued on alone and fell into a crevasse and saved himself by wedging his sledge above him and using the cold ice to sustain his food source and his body to survive to travel the last 100 miles. So bad was his condition when he arrived at base camp, his rescuer exclaimed, “My God, which one are you?” But he survived without much food in the bitter cold. This was rather remarkable.

F. The Andes Flight disaster that the book Alive is based upon: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was flying over the Andes on Friday 13 October 1972 when it crashed into peaks hidden by cloud. It was carrying the Uruguayan Stella Marris College rugby team to a match in Chile, but only 16 lived to tell the tale. The others died during the crash, in the days soon after from injuries or cold, and eight succumbed to an avalanche on the 17th day. The stranded survivors were left with no option but to eat the flesh of their dead teammates and adapt to living in the extreme conditions. The remaining men were found almost 10 weeks in cold that approached minus 30-40 degree F in deep snow falls, following the initial crash when two members went on an expedition and flagged down a passing Chilean horseman.

G. Kenai girl credited with saving friends in Tustumena Lake accident | Alaska Dispatch: One Friday, a father was taking his daughters and friends to a remote public use cabin on the shore of Tustumena Lake. They were traveling in an 18 ft skiff. Conditions were good when they started across the lake. Tustumena Lake is about 25 miles long by about 6 miles wide. At its upper end it is fed by a large glacier. It is notorious for having strong winds come up suddenly off the glacier, leading to severe waves. The lake is relatively shallow in spots which makes the waves even worse. Water temperature is around 40-45 deg F. Some say this is impossible, yet it still happened on our planet to a modern human. Why?

Part way across the conditions became severe and swamped the boat, and all five people ended up in the water. The father was trying to tow one girl (according to one report she was having problems with a poorly fitting pfd). He and that girl died, apparently from hypothermia. However the other three girls were able to swim (wearing life jackets) for an estimated two hours in 40-45 F water and made it to shore. They then walked to another cabin, got a fire going, and were ultimately rescued alive. (Some critics say Navy doctors all know this impossible, I guess the impossible can happen only when you are unaware of it?)

To quote from the article: “Although it’s commonly believed by many in Alaska that if you fall in water as cold as that draining off the Tustumena Glacier into Tustumena Lake you only have minutes to live, that belief is a now a myth to many of the locals because of this story. As long as people survive the sudden shock of the water, which can cause them to reflexively inhale and drown, they can survive for hours, said Jeff Johnson, the state director of Boating Safety. PFDs, he added, are vital for surviving those first few seconds or minutes. People have been known to hit the cold water in Alaska, sink out of sight, inhale water, and never come back up. A life jacket, however, will always bring them to the surface and at least give them a chance. The Tustumena accident, he said, underlines the value of PFDs.”

BEGIN TO THINK DIFFERENTLY:

A point I would like to make to all my readers is this; If you cold adapt using my protocol you will never drown by inhaling the cold water and die of sudden shock. This is the entire point of my Cold Thermogenesis protocol. Navy doctors are unaware of it because the people they treat are never cold adapted! Just because they are not cold adapted, does not also mean that the ability is not present in humans. Once they become adapted they have even more amazing abilities. Some have said it is just a hormetic ability. That is also a bad assumption based upon my own clinical observations and the things I have been able to use it for in my clinic. It shows you the person making the claim has no clue about the quantum effects of cold on water chemistry. Soon you will see those abilities and results. Those results will force you to consider that maybe there is a lot more to this cold adaptation.

Critics are people who have lost there own ability to dream and create. Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people’s values. Negative feedback can make us bitter or it can make us better. When we let go of what we are and how we feel, it allows us to become what we might be. Leadership always starts with thinking for yourself.

Liking me is not your job…it is mine. I have to live with myself, and you with yourself.

I know that biology has an epistemologic foundation in evolutionary biology now. I need to prove that to modern medicine now, not to the paleosphere. I really do not care if our community buys it or not, because I can tell you I have enough to prove it already clinically. Maybe that is the real problem for some.

People want me to care what they think and want me to be a guy like Robb Wolf. I can’t be him. He swims in a different fish bowl than I do. Robb knows full well, what I am up against in my world of healthcare. He has voiced his opinion on the healthcare complex in many venues. This is why I have to proceed differently. If that you percieve my methods different, they are that way, by design. But what I am telling you should not be discarded because you dislike how I am telling you. You should listen to the results of what I have found in humans. Then you should think about the implications of what it might mean to your own currently held dogma.

Many smart people are already working on this biology. Just look at Wim Hof’s video I showed you earlier. Ray Cronise, a former NASA scientist is also doing some amazing things in this arena. Soon scientists across many disciplines will prove me correct. Why am I confident of it? Because it uses the laws of nature laid out by Einstein’s Quantum electrodynamic theory. Soon you will learn about this.

Most elite athletes in profession sports are using CT today. NASA is using it and they have recently sold technology to a company named VASPER in California to do some amazing things to the people who employ it. We need to begin to use evolutionary biology in modern medicine to dictate the decisions we make. Moreover, what I have also found shows that the Epi-paleo diet is selected for specifically by Mother Nature. This should really make many of you out there, pleased. It has not. Too bad for you. How will I do it wont be to everyone’s liking. I am fine with that too. I am not trying to convince people to” try” the diet as Robb or Mark are doing. They are the face of Paleo. I do not have the Paleo label anywhere on my brand. The diet is a part of a larger story that I think will change medicine. For me, the diet is a tool I use to sculpt masterpieces of formerly broken people.

I am using it clinically to heal patients currently thought to be helpless. The Epi-paleo Rx is just a part of the Ancient Pathway. It is a tool for my clinical practice. In the coming months you are going to hear a lot more about the things I am doing to help people get better using what I have learned. The “soul of biology” knows how to heal itself, the key modern challenge is to learn to silence the modern mind and its beliefs simultaneously.

The power of observation is critical. We don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t the fish. Reason, Observation, and Experience is the Holy Trinity of Science!

Einstein didn’t wait until he was Einstein to perform like an Einstein. Every problem we face in life has a solution, if we dig deep for it and do not fall back on what we currently believe to be true. Just because we do not see it does not mean it does not exist! We all need to begin to become aware of the things that are present in life, but appear paradoxical, and try to explain them by the things we know. The key to winning is beginning to think, then executing on that idea. Every pro was once an amateur, and every expert was once a beginner.

Your innate talent is your gift. It is your obligation to bridge the gap between your humanity to get to your divinity.

Dr. Kruse, I’ve heard that cortisol release is a problem with the CT you are proposing. You mention the action of Cortisol above. Can you explain how frequent raising of cortisol through CT is not a bad thing. Everyone reading this is likely of the mind that they need to reduce cortisol, not maintain and heighten it…Thanks!

@Agent orange Cortisol has to be placed in context. Most people in the modern world have super high constant release of cortisol that winds up putting them in situations when you test them they have very very low levels of cortisol. Nora G, Lane Sebring and myself all commented on this at Paleo fx. The issue with cortisol is that our biology is not designed to deal with it being released chronically and consistently. This is precisely what the modern day warm adapted diet, exercise plans, and technology do to humans. Most are unaware of it because they never test their salivary cortisol levels. It is probably the one test that is the most disordered in modern man. CT increases it. Most physicians and practitioners who find low cortisol levels usually prescribe exogenous bio-identical hydrocortisone to treat it. I like using CT a lot better because it allows the brain to produce endogenous cortisol to an appropriate stimulus from our environment. This is why I am a big advocate for testing. Too many modern humans assume they are OK when they are not. And given time they are paying a steep price. Look at the recent death of the famed Born to Run author in his early 50’s. By all accounts the guy was totally healthy doing things most people think are good for a human. I am saying clearly challenge all your assumptions.

Very nice! Can’t wait for the next installment. I’ve been CTing with leptin reset for about a month and have noticed such changes in body comp and injuries to Achilles tendon completely healed! I went on vacation and played heavy tennis and my boyfriend was astounded at how well I was playing- hadn’t played since last summer. I was surprised too. He calls me Russian Girl now… He starts CT next week

Man can be considered in three ways: in terms of the normal, the abnormal and the supernormal. Your critics at ‘FTA’ and elsewhere are basically concerned with the abnormal, the pathological, as if you are someone who has fallen down from the normal, who has fallen down from the norm.

They are missing the point completely, they should consider you from the standpoint of the supernormal – of the one who has gone beyond the norm. Both are abnormal. One who is pathological is abnormal because he is not healthy, and one who is supernormal is abnormal because he is more healthy than any normal human being. The difference is of negative and positive.

As an example – modern psychology developed as part of psychotherapy. Freud, Jung, Adler and other psychologists were treating the abnormal man, the man who is mentally ill. Because of this the whole attitude towards man has become erroneous. Freud was studying pathological cases. Of course, no healthy man would go to him – only those who were mentally ill. They were studied by him, and because of that study he thought that now he understood man. Pathological men are not really men, they are ill, and anything based on a study of them is bound to be deeply erroneous and harmful.

This has proved harmful because man is looked at from a pathological standpoint. If a particular state of mind is chosen and that state is ill, pathological, then the whole image of man becomes disease-based. Because of this attitude, modern society has fallen down – because the ill man is the base, the perverted has become the foundation.

And if you study only the abnormal, you cannot conceive of any possibility of supernormal beings. A buddha is impossible for Freud, not conceivable. He must be fictitious, mythological. A buddha cannot be a reality. Freud has only come in contact with ill men who are not even normal, and whatsoever he says about normal man is based on the study of abnormal man.

It is just like a physician who is doing a study. No healthy man will go to him, there is no need. Only unhealthy people will go. By studying so many unhealthy people, he creates a picture in his mind of man, but that picture cannot be of man. It cannot be because man is not only illnesses. And if you base your concept of man on illnesses, the whole society will suffer.

@Resurgent I love critics. They continue to drive me to help the millions of people all over the world and on paleo forums who are not getting the results promised in many places. The reason is simple. We are tapping a small part of what Mother Nature has given us. In today’s blog I showed an elderly man, who was left at medicine’s door step to die…….regain something he dearly wanted. All I had to do was think differently about his problems and what I was taught in med school and in my residency. Just imagine if we all did that for a while. What other things might we accomplish? I stopped looking at my job from an illness standpoint and now look at it from a wellness standpoint. What can I do to keep people healthy first and foremost. I still can heal them with surgery when they need it…….and I will soon show you that result too in other ways. I think the MD’s in this paleo community need to realize we can all do more than we all think.

Dr.K, Amazing stuff! This is really exciting. I really got a kick out of the interview with Mr. Daniels. What he just experienced was nothing short of miraculous and yet for him, like for many of us, it’s still not enough…now, he wants to play ping pong! It reminded me you saying that once you knew an A was reachable, why settle for a C? I can’t wait to hear more!

I have been working through your old posts. It is a big task for me as the reader let alone what it must have been like for you as the writer. As I read your material I am reminded of what Seneca said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I wonder how many people in the world today would have had the preparation to put all this together. How many people would have freely shared these insights? It is a massive work.

I am grateful that you decided to share you work with me. I am the richer for it.

Jack, I finally have my shoulder surgery scheduled for the 19th. Leptin RX and I’m doing CT for 20 minutes in the shower at 49 degrees. Should I ramp it up leading to the surgery? and If so how. I would appreciate any feedback you can offer me. Thanks

“Optimal health is no longer a mystery. It’s a choice.” I made the choice to work myself to death with a brutal on-call schedule, pleasure-less triathlons, lots of chronic-cardio that I hated, and ate a S.A.D diet all along the way. I ended up no where. Well, actually, I ended up kind of sick: highish a1c, HS-CRP, and cortisol, with low vitamin D and testosterone issues. As Dr.Kruse has pointed out, testing is critical for most of us. Now I know what’s wrong and how to proceed: Seasonal ketogenic/paleo diet + cold thermogenesis + sleep + stress management + healed gut + Erwan LeCorre style fitness = the new me. (I think the new me could kick the old me’s arse, BTW.)Thanks for mentoring all us “seeking optimal” newbies.

So nice to come home from work as an ER nurse, and find a new CT installment to feast my brain on. All day I care for people with neolithic diseases, and they are treated but never really healed with modern medicine. I read your blog and have hope for a healthier future. It is difficult to remain optimistic when working in the healthfield, and you are a breath of fresh air. If you ever open a clinic in Syracuse NY can I be your lead RN? Looking forward to the next blog and for your book!

I heard about your “stunt” 2nd hand, by people who made it
sound like you had completely lost it.
Now that I’ve heard exactly what you were doing, I am
impressed.
But what you demonstrated with Lonnie Daniels is a game changer. It
sounds like he would have been high risk at half his age!
I hear rumors that Medicare may severely curtail major surgery
for those over 75 based on cost benefit analysis. This completely
rewrites the rules!

Not only did you successfully complete the surgery, you surely
cut the total cost in half!

I appreciate what you are doing. You have stepped out on a limb and risked being criticized in the name of truth. I have been cold adapting for 5 weeks and the osteoarthritis in my knees and lower back is negligable.
I was able to play a game of flag football yesterday with my family. I have been unable to partake in this type of activity for 2 years without serious discomfort. I woke up today and feel great, no pain. It may seem trivial to many, however to me the opportunity to participate in and athletic activity with my two young boys without significant pain was absolutely incredible. Thank you my friend.

P.S My wife and family think I’m crazy for swimming in my cold pool and icing myself daily. I have never had a problem going against the grain. I am glad you feel the same way.

Another amazing blog post that is worth reading, and re-reading. Thank you for sharing your gifts with so many, my life and my husband’s life are already changed, and people around us are taking notice and asking what we are doing. I can’t say I like the cold…. but I like what I KNOW it will do for me. Faith keeps me working my CT and I know I will get there, with all the amazing benefits it holds for me. Losing weight is just a side-effect of getting WELL.. and getting OPTIMAL is my focus now. You give so much of your time on the blog, in the forum, to your patients, giving talks… I used to wonder how you did it all but then I gave MY brain optimal fuel and saw how much more productive I have become… amazing how that works! Still, I feel blessed that you feel the obligation to share with the world – and that you execute on that thought!

Dr Kruse, I think you’re shining light on more than an ancient pathway. You’re exposing health damaging mismatches all around us. And it is pretty enlightening to see who persists in marketing/supporting such mismatches.
I feel more empowered every time I visit your blog.
Thank you! (Understatement!)

Thank You, dr.Kruse for the brain surgery you are doing on me.
I am sooo excited and after years and countless doctors I know I will finally fix my hormones!

I can’t stop reading, watching, listening all your amazing work… I’m waiting to jump in cold ocean in few minutes and wondering if Jack would have survived in Titanic, if he did some CT… 🙂

It is so empowering to see what my body can do, when I think differently. I used to hate if ocean wasnt warm (73F), now I am swimming daily in 51F and I feel more in touch with mother Nature than ever before.

Dr. Kruse,
I’m only trying to offer you constructive advice because I appreciate what you’ve done for the Paleo community, and because you have many great, great ideas. I feel that as you become more well known on the world wide web (not just within the Paleo community, but also in the health community in general), many people want to read what you have to say and how to implement reaching optimal. These people do not know evolutionary biology or have yrs of Paleo backgrounds so they often have a difficult time understanding your blog or getting thru your entries (including my dad who actually has an interest in nutrition for yrs).

I feel like you could benefit tremendously in spreading your word and the practical advice on what to do to reach optimal if you got/hired someone (because your time is limited) to help organize your blog, simplify (even dumb down slightly) your archives…make your website more user-friendly for the average person world-wide. Maybe even translate it to different languages, just an idea.

I personally love the intricate details since I’m trying to reach optimal too + entering medicine. But I feel many find your message too difficult to understand (they’re not quite down the rabbit hole) but it doesn’t mean they don’t want to implement your advice or that they weren’t inspired by your transformation. My $0.02. Keep up the hard work.

@DanH you may not know this but several of my blogs have been edited under your nose already. We have hired editors for the blog. They have already done 5 of them. I just have not told ya which ones. On my forum I also have a suggestion thread. I would love you to drop your comments there for my marketing monkeys…….they read all suggestions and implement many good ideas. the people on my forum can attest to it.

More research has been done and 100 % surpression of the immuneresponse after endotoxine laboratory test with my blood, after a cold fysiological experiment at the UMC Radboud University
The autonomic is no longer autonomic as stated
More research has been regarding Brown Fat Adipose, at the university in Maastricht ?Netherlands
I could produce 4 to 5 times more energy than others with the same amount of BFA
Greetings and keep on

the comments at freethejerk were mesmerizing. i can’t stand kurt harris and melissa mcmuffic, so richard of ftj was so funny inplying that they were being hangwring babies. that was so satisfying. then when freethejerk man got criticized by a woman, he defalutled to his handy work insult which started a girl pileup on him. that was cool. that mr. kamal ‘i have no moral backbone’ patel starts to rip into freethej man- but later kisses and makes up with him after the c-user puts out a lame “oops, didn’t know they were your friends…”

i want to encourage everyone who is currently using or planning on using CT to document what they are doing with blood work/photos/ and or videos on their own blog. just make one at blogspot.com this would be invaluable and a way for everyone to participate in a concrete, constructive way. even if you already started CT with no predocumentation, i think it would be a great help to start now. someone might be in a similar sitiuation as yours ( interms of age, prior medical history, etc) and learn a lot from your process of going through CT.
i plan to get some bloodwork done, and then ramp up the baby CT i have already been doing.

Jack,
great article as usual.
Cortisol issues really intrigue me. It looks like HIGH cortisol ist not all that bad. Meditation seems to be able to lower it a lot and alleviate stress. Aren’t high stress hormone levels tied to atherosclerosis and heart disease and T2D?
Would appreciate some words on chronic stress, stress hormones and CT.
Again,
Thanks a lot!

I’ve had what a doctor told me was a granuloma, on my right shin for about 20 years. It was about the size of a tapioca pearl. I can still see the blemish on the skin, but the bump is now barely detectable to the touch. Interesting.

@nonchalant inflammation goes down in sustained CT and improves recovery and stamina and increase the hormone response. Ned Kock just did a blog post about this recently as well that confirms what I have been saying here.

Jack,
Another great addition to the series. Aside from the benefits a surgeon or other health care provider might reap from understanding CT, it seems like we all could benefit from any measure of cold adaptation. I noted in one of the discussion papers on Wim Hof that blood tests 6 days after a cold experiment were still showing signs of high immune system response. Even if we were not completely adapted there would be some improvement in being able to fight inflammation and infections etc.

I don’t have a way to verify this but since I started CT, the fatty areas of my body now feel more supple/squishy. Would this be the effect of converting to BAT? My weight loss hasn’t been as dramatic as you experienced but I have had other improvements.

@Eric There is honestly not enough study done on this area to make a cogent response. I can only tell you what I have found and I bet Wim is in the same boat. There is a paucity of papers on WATto BAT conversion in humans.

@Jack – you’ve said before that you don’t believe in the 80/20 rule. What about kids and their exposure to SAD eating from time to time? I worry about the psychological effects of separating a child from friends and experiences and whether that effect would be worse than the one piece of birthday cake they have every once in a while when invited over by friends. As I’ve read elsewhere, poison is in the dose. Is there a “dosing” level” we can possibly identify when trying to navigate issues like kids? I’d love to be 100% optimal 100% of the time with 100% of my family. Bit we’re now dealing with the very real human component of all this. Any advice?

@TheKid I do believe in the 80/20 rule for many things, but not for diet. Evolution does not shoot for moderation……it shoots for an A when it is possible. If you want to feed your kids cake do it, but you must realize the consequences of it. Some people will tell you that cheats are OK. They are OK if you think they are OK. I don’t think this way. We did not have treats until recently. We are socialized to believe cheats are OK. They are a modern neolithic thought I can do without. This is a decision you have to make as a parent. I cant legislate to you. I can show you what I know. I can tell you what I do but you have to decide what works for you. When things go awry do not ask why they are awry until you correct for these errors in thinking first. Most humans think these cheats are OK. I have seen no proof of that honestly. I think our diet directly affects our genomic switches faster than any other thing we do. So I think it is paramount to get it right.

Poison is in the dose for many things including the diet. I believe Mike Eades wrote once in his book that anything that had over 5 grams of carbs causes serious glycation in human biologic systems. You will have to source that……but I do remember reading that long ago. If you’re a PHD believer, he clearly does not buy that at all. When it comes to diet, I have no diet book to sell and never will. I eat by circadian signals. The fuel source is a paleolithic diet tied to the biologic signals. That is how I roll…….outside of when I am doing a bio hack

First of all, I wanna say thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about cold thermogenesis.

My wife and I already started with face dunks in 50F water. Sometimes we also incorporate ice packs. Right now our alternative for cold showers is ice water in pail and we use a dipper for pouring water over our bodies.

This week we’re going to start with ice immersions. Is it enough to submerge from the waist down? Or do we have to immerse everything up to the neck? Thanks!

Dr.K, I mentioned on the forum that I have seen a major change in a scar on tummy from a spinal fusion done two years ago. This scar tissue healed hard and bumpy and really bothered me. I notice in the shower that it is undetectable by touch now and actually looks much better. I have mostly done cold baths with a small amount of ice spotting.

Do you think your scar is healing better, and quicker? How about Lonnie being so much older? Do you think the scar tissue will be different with CTing? I wonder if this could have a major impact on the cosmetic surgery world?

@Marti D scar tissue and stretch marks all do better in cold because you are decreasing the inflammation in the skin. That is why CT makes a difference. Plastic surgeons use ice a lot just not pre op or post op as I do.

V – good idea about everyone should try to document what results they get from CT. I think maybe I’ll get some tests ordered online and go from there. BTW, you know me under a different name (starting with ‘H’) on the DeVany forum- I haven’t renewed my subscription there and I’ve not yet decided if I will.

Jack,
Wim’s comments above about his ability to deliver energy and BAT are what struck my thought about conversion. Could the fatty tissue be tested by removing a sample in a needle? In my case, the amount of squishy fatty tissue since CT is remarkable. I’d be willing to have a test run if it’s possible to determine what type it is.

@Eric I am sure it could. I am not sure if there is any commercial BAT assays however. I would imagine as cold biochemistry research progresses this will be offered. Science is just wiping the sleep from its eyes on this topic.

Do you have any experiments with Gastric Bypass patients (10 years or more recent)? I’m scheduled for my testing next week(cortisol, hormone,basic, and DexaScan) and planning to start CT after testing is done.

I have had a problem with extremely dry skin on my feet (most on/around the toes)….the skin cracks and it starts to bleed….can be painful at times and hard to walk. Have had this since 8 yrs old (now 37).

I have a feeling it is tied to diet, I am not perfectly keto paleo but I am trying my best. Do you have any idea what could cause this?

Have had a leaky gut since then, it has improved drastically since reducing grains etc.

Tomas I have heard this from several but here in Nashville those on the paleo diet just have not got this……so I can say what is the cause without testing. Its just not something I have seen. to combat it i would I would consider use of CO or olive oil on the skin. You could also consider eating some more nuts. As for your shorts…..youre not nuts. Youre a trend setter.

1) the thing lonnie handed you were his mostly unused pain meds. it moved me to see the happiness radiating from him. and it moved me to hear the catch in your voice when you asked him what he had handed you.
2) the child dream is n—–e. if you don’t know what i am talking about, never mind.
3)factor x had to do with changes in oxygen regulation.

@HS4 don’t leave the de vany forum- it is cheap even for a cheapy like me!!!! and professor de vany’s comments are worth their weight in gold even if he has been a little grumpier lately. i hope he isn’t trying to dry up the forum cuz he is bored with it.

I am going to be more strict with keto paleo. Have been applying CO to the skin occasionaly, will apply daily now……the only oil I can tolerate is Coconut oil…… my stomach does not like others. I’m also allergic to shoes, can only wear vibrams… not fun in snow 🙂 If I do, the skin dries and cracks badly.

I can’t even walk on hard wood floors (2+ weeks) that has been treated with top oil. 🙁

Dr K,
Any different approaches with bypass patients? Perhaps you can highlight results in the future. I am 10 years post op lost over 160lbs and maintained -140lbsloss. I’m patiently waiting on your book and investigating while I wait to test. Only a week until after my tests are completed then I plan to start CT. Drinking BP coffee and adding MCT to my skin.

” When things go awry do not ask why they are awry until you correct for these errors in thinking first. ”

Love that statement. I feel as tho I have had a complete lobotomy of late. Thanks tons.

Please don’t “dumb” it down. We don’t need more sound bytes and talking down to. We get way too much of that already via polititcians and the media.. Real science is absolute and knowledge is power. IMHO Most skeptics and disbelievers are hard of hearing and require concrete evidence in order to get the wax out of their ears……

Your message is so off center and beyond that of any field that the more concrete science and evidence behind it the better. It is an arduous task, swimming upstream and making headway.

I was hoping you would comment on something I read in Perfect Health Diet by Paul Jaminet. On pages 11-16, he talks about “mammals eat different foods… but the same diet”. He goes on to explain how food is transformed in the digestive tract of carnivore, herbivores and omnivores and after digestion are almost the same ratio of macro-nutrients. It is the macro-nutrients after digestion of the ruminant that most interested me: 0% carbohydrates, 17% protein, 80% saturated and monounsaturated fats, and 3% polyunsaturated fats.

Actually, the comparison of macro-nutrients after digestion was the best part of the book for me.

In the next chapter he says ketogenic diets are a “pure herbivore strategy” and that he does not recommend this diet for healthy people but can be used therapeutically in epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, solid tumor cancers and diabetes. He does use ketogenic dieting for intermittent fasting. He considers ketogenic diets prone to “nutritional deficiencies” and “lacks the redundancy and robustness of the Perfect Health Diet”.

What do you have to say about possible “nutritional deficiencies” of ketogenic diets? Do you think seasonal ketogenic diets will solve this problem or do you disagree with the whole argument? (I know we only have data for ketogenic diets for epileptics and the doctors loaded that form of the ketogenic diet with industrial vegetable oils.)

@Caroline With out opening a can of whoop ass…….Ketogenic diets are born and bred for cold environments. They are not born and bred for the modern world. PHD talks about the ketogenic diet in a warm world……hence the negative spin. I look at it differently. I have not laid out all my thoughts in this space but Paul et al. think I have. Modern hominids who are mammals do not realize that we have ties back to our ancestors…….and when we choose to live in that light things (biochemistry) change. That right there make me crazier than bat shit to team DHMMML et al.

Those things are not in the biochem books yet, but the game is jsut begun……but the results of what I have found are in observational findings. CT-9 is the perfect embodiment of this……..all science begins with reason, observation……and experimentation. I embody this philospophy and it makes others in the movement cringe because they want acceptance more than anything else. Many want to hang me from the rafters over this………because they do not like they way I have done it. Well, I decided my road because of what I saw ……..and what I knew and what I learned showed me incongruity. And in that chaos, I found biologic sense. My sense is not common, and it is counter intuitive to what we are socialized to believe. I love failure. I love chaos. It is not a journey of perfection. It is doing…….and learning.

I happen to think Paul is correct that VLC diet in warm adapted mammals has limitations. What he has a huge problem with is that paleo with safe starches carries even larger risks, and threatens paleo and his book sales………And he does not know what I know because he is not a clinician who tests people…….he is a guy selling a diet book. He is a very nice guy and I like a lot about Paul. But my world and my patients have to keep me real in this journey. I respect Paul, but disagree with him on a lot. I also agree with him on much more than I disagree but many, including him, focus on what we do not agree on. So I have just decided to move on and focus on the prize…….people’s success. Paul is very capable of doing his thing. People will find comfort in that. I’m cool with it, too. But that does not cut it for most of my patients who have major issues to overcome.

I absolutely love this post! Just discovered your blog this week and am working my through this stuff. It is fascinating and I appreciate you not dumbing it down actually, I think my brain is adapting to the intellect haha. Thanks!

@julie Thanks for stopping by and I am glad you like my wild side……this blog is one of my easy reading ones………I like hurting heads. I want people thinking. This blog is all about showing what thinking differently can do to impact a patients life……..we need to help one another. Paleo it forward.

I have two people s/p thyroid cancer…..who are doing so well on CT its not funny. And then I have a few Hashimoto’s lady’s, one with Hep C who are crushing it CT. One has lost 36 pound in 2.5 months after 15 yrs of nothing but weight gain.

I’m not surprised at your views. I am(was) an epileptic so being ketogenic isn’t that odd. I would just like to have a rational explanation when I go to a new doctor about what I am doing. Maybe I will just refer him/her to your website and avoid the conversation.

By the way, I haven’t been able to find any “safe starches” either. Starch isn’t safe for me. Of course, I am an n=1, so I know what works for me will not necessarily work for others.

What if one is not trying to lose weight?
Dr. Kruse in CT6 you were saying that keto and CT is a pathway to longevity:

” Cold eliminates appetite and hunger period. This makes calorie restriction an easy thing to complete. This means we live longer. Really Doc? Yes, and here is why…….Anytime we increase REE in mammals in cold it calls for reduced calorie diet; because of this we generate less ROS at the inner mitochondrial membrane. This means that cold thermogenesis will likely extend survival because it selects for longer telomere lengths! ”

REE = Resting energy expenditure, so I don’t understand how I can increase energy expenditure while reducing calories in, if I don’t have a lot of body fat to lose?

And the colder the bath and time in it, the more calories you burn, but if my goal is to live longer and not to lose weight, it means, according to you, it’s a calorie restricted diet, so why burn extra calories as free heat? Instead I can save those calories from being consumed in a first place (and spare my mitochondria) if I stay warm or take a very short and not very cold bath, say 70 degrees for hermetic effect?

Dr K,
Lets bring the symposium down under….. winter swims at the beach are a great start to each morning. We have so much interest. Its fantastic to see patients experiment for themselves. One of our patients has had an ice suit made to fit ( have just ordered one myself, must say looks like I’m wearing bicycle tyres from head to toe ) he wears it every morning and night. He has lost 15kg over 4.5 weeks.
Please don’t change the way you write and DO NOT DUMB IT DOWN we have patients from all walks of life I love that they come in with high school biology books or search the internet for explanations. This has created its own community and support.

Hello Dr. Kruse,
I finally finished reading your blog from June 2011 till now in about a month.It is great, but heavy stuff, feeling like I am studying to become my own doctor with all this information. I will have to reread it all the coming winter, I’ll print it out to prevent the light of laptop in the evening.
Thanks for putting the leptin and CT easy start-ups on your site.
I have question, in easy CT start guide you say “COLD THERMOGENESIS (CT)This should gradually be added to the Leptin Rx reset protocol (not everyone will need this).” Who and why does not everybody need CT?
I also have the same question as Anna K at comment 108, I want to improve my health, increase muscles and certainly do not wish to lose weight. 75 kg and 1.83m. skinny due to hard work and astmha, which seems to get better after cutting hard on bread, I hope to become full paleo if I can convince my wife that this way of living/eating is really doing me good.
If you ever visit France, be welcome to visit my organic farm, and try some reel grass-fed, whole fat, raw milk Gouda type cheese with fenugreek or whole cloves.
Kind Regards, Aldert, 25170 Mazerolles le Salin, France.

@Aldert CT is helpful for most……but there are some who it wont help. People wit glycogen storage diseases, and people with autonomic nerve damage are two groups I have seen no help for as yet. But form most everyone else there is benefit. You wont get skinny, you will get very muscular and trim.

I am truly enjoying the comments, like all of the blogs, and I am in agreement: please do not dumb down the science (other than putting in the accompanying “non-geek” parts). I figure I will 3 credits done by the end of April!

Thanks, Jack. On my way to the pond for day 17 of full immersion in 45 deg water. Feel great. I just keep getting more solid and ripped with less hunger and less exercize. We haven’t really mentioned the energy savings from these changes. I haven’t taken a hot shower in 4+weeks and I am using less electricity at night. These protocols actually save money. When do you give up factor X?

In 1958, I had a series of Electroconvulsive therapy (electroshock)at 16 years of age. I think I had a total of 14 electroshocks. My question is, do you think this treatment has any affect on Cold T? I was told by a Dr, some 20 years ago that I probably lost 10% of my brain capacity. I am a celiac, which was the reason for the electroshock. This was not discovered until 1987, at which time I started the no grain diet and slowly moved to a high fat low carb diet. Your thoughts on this are appreciated. I am still doing the dive reflex 2 to 3 times a day. The cold T bumps my heart rate up by 10 to 15 beats a minute.

Fabrice Muamba was ‘dead’ for 78 minutes
Hi not sure if your aware of the following story, maybe another example of Cold Treatment yielding amazing results. I heard that he was ‘chilled’ to protect vital organs (particularly the brain). … They will have packed his body in ice and put him into an artificial coma
MIRACLE man Fabrice Muamba is set to be told this week he can resume his football career with Bolton Wanderers.

The astonishing news comes just three weeks after the 24-year-old midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at Tottenham.

He was clinically dead for 78 minutes before his heart began beating on its own again.

Despite his continuing miraculous recovery, it was still feared Muamba would never play professionally again because of the impact the ordeal would have had on his body.

Yet tests have now revealed no physical reason why he cannot eventually make a return to the Premier League.

I’ve found this blog very interesting, and while reading through the posts I was reminded of something I was told while growing up on an island in Southeast Alaska (and swimming in the cold pacific ocean regularly):

The Tlingit natives of the region evidently had a ritualistic “toughening up” practice of sitting in the surf of the pacific ocean for as long as they could stand, then rolling around in ashes from a recently extinguished fire to warm-up. I was told they would perform this practice regularly.

I thought this was an interesting anecdote that seems to be much in-line with Dr. Kruse’s theories. Anyways, keep up the good work, fascinating stuff!

@Kami I am not sure what you are asking here? People with disease that have autonomic nerve damage sometimes struggle with CT…..because their peripheral nerves are shot. When I test them here we can see this…….I cant test that over the net.

Often I have to digest long, dense scientific articles full of equations. I’m getting older and I become fatigated after 1hour or so. Could you give me any recommendation to stay focused during 2-4 hours?. I observe people use nicotine (cigarettes) for that, but that’s too risky.

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/news051219-1.html This shows that cold adaptation does not take long in humans and one can then get into pretty cold water very quickly contrary to what some “doctors” said on FTA site. When you do not know something is true you should really not use absolutes.

this probably sounds bad with the mindset of American culture so apologize if so, but with the rates for members only affluent people or with very big problems will sign up for the long run. That goal is ok, but no sure if that’s the idea.

a friend of mine who knew I did the Leptin Rx and some CT asked me to comment… so I shared my take – a bit on the article and more on how one should approach any efforts toward wellness…

“First, I would say that Dr. K is pushing the edge of the envelope. And he has put it out there how he did it. And he has put CT out there as an addition to the LRx that is not necessarily needed by everyone. Further there is a progression with it, and he clearly outlines that you shouldn’t do it if you aren’t in the right O6::O3 ratio. It is cold ADAPTATION, and pretty much like learning a language you can go submersion and suffer the consequences of your ignorance or you can go slow. The people who see “kills fat cells” and stop reading are the ones who should probably just go get Zeltique done. Because they jump into a cold bath for 45 mins, not realizing they have just obliterated the body’s natural Fort Knox for storing xenoestrogens and all the other crap they put in their bodies for the last decade or more. And then your lymph system has to process it all which WILL have side effects – sinus drainage is a big one… so if you start CT in the height of allergy season or in the middle of a cold, well that is just plain stupid. The liver is also a huge component of detoxing the body, so the fool who keeps up his Guinness every night habit and does CT is going to – as aviators say – over stress the airframe.

With respect to her article, I would love to have her detail out all the science behind hot treatments and the pathology of their toxin clearing on the level of Dr. K’s description of the science of CT. Without that she really just seems to be a whiner with a preference to Ray Cronise.

I’ve done CT baths only a few times using the “croak soak” method of getting in an empty tub, turning on the water at slow cold and letting it creep up over about 10 minutes, until I am chest deep. As I settle in I can turn the water on faster and colder. I don’t bother with a skin thermometer and just toss in a couple of gladware containers of frozen water to chill it down a bit more. I stay about 30-40 mins, reading something. I do NOT like doing it before bed, because it does NOT make me sleepy. Then again, Natural Calm Magnesium keeps me awake too. For me, if it takes me until the next natural winter to be well cold adapted, so be it. I’ve got 45 years of SAD stored up in my body. And at my age there is plenty shifting on an endocrinologial level already.

My surgery to repair my tendons and ligaments in my foot basically included CT of my foot for 8 days. 30min on 30 min off for over a week. There were issues with that process that I would use as recommendations to the equipment manufacturer as upgrades, but I was able to be off narcotics w/in 72 hrs and in a weight bearing cast in 8 days!

My success using Dr. K’s protocols – down 15 lbs with the LRx and limited CT. And unlike on Zone, I experienced NO post prandial hypoglycemia. Unlike Paleo alone, I am sleeping better and my middle age woman issues are moving back to normal. I have all the signs of being LS and am particularly fond of my now gorgeous skin on my elbows and feet. And that is a mighty good feeling for a woman who in January pretty much had only the word cancer to describe her skin.

So yes, when the peak of allergy season is passed, I will pop back into the tub. But I’m not in a hurry and nor should anyone else be.”

@CGK Thanks for posting this. The other blogger, thinks we have a disagreement over something. Funny, I don’t recall that. I recall she made some things up to try to get a rise out of us, who paid her no mind. In fact, I dont bother with her at all and have not after the way she treated me, Jimmy Moore and Mike Eades at AHS 2011, with some comments not based upon knowing any facts. That is her MO among the people at my forum and MDA as well. Maybe she does “think” in her own mind there is a running feud, but she really seems to think she is a big deal in her own mind. She never uttered a word to me at AHS 2011, but proceeded to make claims of “all of us VLCers” having red skin due to high protein diets ……..when one of her own paleoites pointed out to her I was surfing off the Pier the day before, she clammed up and never apologized for it or set the record straight as a moderator at PH. Her point was to try to be derogatory to us all. She exhibited precisely what Dean Dwyer brought up on our panel with Robb Wolf about grafitti and the lowest common denominator. She also did not realize the people who had lunch with me at UCLA saw me eating unreal amounts of blueberries and chocolate. She has a real problem with facts when she gossips about people. Her actions speak louder than her words and it reflects upon her. She seems to have a real problem with “me” and likes to say things to incite her lackey’s. I find it comical really, the more she spews the more popular I get. Maybe I send her a thank you card?

Just be who you want to be, not what others want to see. You were born an authentic original. Don’t die an artificial copy…….

A MOTHER in Argentina says she fell to her knees in shock after finding her baby alive in a coffin in the morgue nearly 12 hours after the girl had been declared dead.
Analia Bouguet named her newborn Luz Milagros, or Miracle Light. The tiny girl, born three months premature, was in critical but improving condition on Wednesday in the same hospital where the staff pronounced her stillborn on April 3.

The case became public on Tuesday when Rafael Sabatinelli, the deputy health minister in the northern province of Chaco, announced in a news conference that five medical professionals involved have been suspended pending an official investigation.

Ms Bouguet told the TeleNoticias TV channel in an interview on Tuesday night that doctors gave her the death certificate just 20 minutes after the baby was born, and that she still hasn’t received a birth certificate for her tiny girl.

Ms Bouguet said the baby was quickly put in a coffin and taken to the morgue’s refrigeration room. Twelve hours passed before she and her husband were able to open the coffin to say their last goodbyes.

She said that’s when the baby trembled. She thought it was her imagination – then she realised the little girl was alive, and dropped to her knees on the morgue floor in shock.

A morgue worker quickly picked up the girl and confirmed she was alive. Then Ms Bouguet’s brother grabbed the baby and ran to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, shouting for the doctors. The baby was so cold, Bouguet said, that “it was like carrying a bottle of ice.”

A week later, the baby is improving. Ms Bouguet said she still has many unanswered questions about what happened. She said she had given birth normally to four other children and doesn’t understand why doctors gave her general anaesthesia this time. She said she also doesn’t know why she wasn’t allowed to see her baby before it was put into a coffin.

She said she had to insist on going to the morgue’s refrigeration room, where she brought her sister’s mobile phone to take a picture of the newborn for the funeral. Her husband struggled to open the lid, and then stepped aside to let her see inside.

“I moved the coverings aside and saw the tiny hand, with all five fingers, and I touched her hand and then uncovered her face,” she said in the TeleNoticias interview. “That’s where I heard a tiny little cry. I told myself I was imagining it – it was my imagination. And then I stepped back and saw her waking up. It was as if she was saying ‘Mama, you came for me!’

“That was when I fell to my knees. My husband didn’t know what to do. We were just crying and I laughed and cried, cries and laughter. We must have seemed crazy.”

She says the family plans to sue the staff at Hospital Perrando in the city of Resistencia for malpractice, and still wants answers. But they’ve been focused for now on their little girl, whom she described as amazingly healthy despite being born after just 26 weeks of gestation. So far, she hasn’t needed oxygen or other support commonly provided to premature babies, she said.

“I’m a believer. All of this was a miracle from God,” she told Telam, Argentina’s state news agency.

Did I mention that another benefit I get from CT is that my knee joints don’t hurt anymore? Ya, how did I get joint pain at 26? I don’t know. Also I think my jaw is getting better too. That one is slower and might take a bit longer, but even that I notice a HUGE improvement.

So let’s tally everything CT has done for me:

-better eye muscle coordination (eyes not so droopy and lazy)
-skin on face really awesome and white spots under eyes completely gone on left side and almost gone on right side
-body composition looks sculpted and have a flat stomach again.
-NO DIARRHEA for a month now! (Had it off and on for past 6 yrs, some months worse than others. Brief time during summer where it was much improved but even then still had some even with ‘paleo’ eating. Then August ate crappy and had D for the WHOLE month, with following months more regular but still a lot of D).
-Lower back pain (probably related to bloating) gone.
-Jaw pain much diminished. Less crackling.
-Teeth were ‘sore’ for the last year, thought it was cavities. Now, no.
-Hair has ACTUALLY grown in last month I notice. It’s also very shiny (but I always tended to have decently shiny hair).
-I think overall emotional response is more mellow and calm.

Hope that’s enough of an update. (Guess I should put this in a journal on the forum, lol).

Gladina, how cool (literally)! Curious how long you’ve dealt with the jaw issues? I’m worried about tmj (I’m in crazy pain, I’m chewing my cheeks to bits, and I’ve cracked a crown right off of one tooth at night and it’s infected. Gross). I started face dunking last week, despite feeling like dogdoo from my face hurting. I’m just plowing forward while my GP pushes antibiotics at me!

I also struggle with the dense scientific information on your blog, but I don’t want it dumbed down for anything. I have to say, however, that I really do appreciate the ns and geek categories. Thanks for caring so much Dr. Kruse 🙂

Question regarding Hashimoto’s and thyroid. I’ve been cold adapting for over a month now and definitely noticing changes. Some days I’m unstoppable; other days, not so much. But I assume the latter is due to detox.

How will cold adaptation (assuming one reaches that state) affect thyroid numbers (free T3/T4, reverse T3, TSH, etc). You previously wrote that cold adaptation can bypass the thyroid altogether (and go directly to the source). Does this mean if one is successfully cold adapted, their TSH would be suppressed? Would ‘normal’ levels of T3 and T4 still be expected or is their a whole new reference metric?

Lastly, some days I sleep amazingly yet still have bags under my eyes. Could this be a product of detox overwhelming my liver/kidneys?

@Polar Bear from your message, “There has been some confusion about Polar Bear references and some critics have attempted to point out that Polar Bears don’t hibernate as a reason to discredit the posits of CT by Dr. Jack Kruse. This is fiction and not accurate. Read on and learn the truth – and you may want to pay special attention to the last sentence in this quote.

I don’t fault the average person, they don’t typically have a well schooled scientific professional (pedigreed) background. What I do have an issue with is the “Harvard elite set” of Deans, Harris et al and their followers who blindly believe idea after idea they spout out as “truths” about why nothing Kruse says is accurate. I’d be a little (well, a lot actually) embarrassed if I was them and I went back and now looked at what I said and how I conducted myself and how unprofessional my conduct was. Those that listen to them blindly should think about finding a better mentor or critical thinker to follow (or better yet) read up yourself – question everything – and then make an informed decision.
Hibernation: “Like other ursids, polar bears have evolved a very specialized winter dormancy. Females occupy maternal dens of ice and snow for periods of 4–8 months. During that time, they neither eat nor drink and they do not urinate or defecate (Nelson et al. 1973; Folk and Nelson 1981; Nelson 1987; Watts and Hansen 1987; Ramsay and Stirling 1988). In hibernating bears, normal mineral levels are maintained, lean body mass is constant, blood electrolyte balance is preserved, and levels of blood metabolites are largely unchanged despite loss of nearly half of their total body mass after den entry (Nelson et al. 1973; Folk and Nelson 1981; Guppy 1986; Nelson 1987; Atkinson and Ramsay 1995). They appear able to maintain constant fluid levels by using metabolic water produced from fat catabolism (Guppy 1986;
Nelson 1987).

Polar bears may be even more highly evolved with regard to their ability to survive food deprivation than the other ursids. Behavior and physiology of polar bears are well adapted to a feast-and-famine feeding regimen (Lunn and Stirling 1985;Watts and Hansen 1987; Ramsay and Stirling 1988; Derocher and Stirling 1990; Derocher et al. 1990). It now appears that they can alter their metabolism during periods of food deprivation at any time of the year (Nelson et al. 1983). Atkinson and Ramsay (1995) and Derocher et al. (1990) demonstrated that polar bears, unlike other bears, can shift as needed into a hibernation-like metabolic pattern when confronted by a period of food shortage. Facultative
changes into and out of a hibernation-like state would magnify the value of summer and winter shelter denning described by Messier
et al. (1994) and Ferguson et al. (2000a).

This ability could make polar bears the most advanced of all mammals when it comes to dealing with food and water deprivation (Nelson 1987).”

Ah, the great polar bear debate continues. I just checked out the websites cited above. For further clarification about the hibernation habits of polar bears . . .

“Do polar bears hibernate?
Not in the strict sense of the word. True hibernators experience a marked drop in heart rate and body temperature and generally stay for a long period in a den. Polar bears instead enter a state of walking hibernation where their metabolism slows. Only pregnant polar bears enter a den, give birth, and emerge three months later.”

This doesn’t completely invalidate what is stated above, but it is a fact that non-pregnant, non-female polar bears do not hibernate in the strict sense of the word.

APow It matters little that they hibernate……perfectly of not……what matters the effect of cold upon them…..as they cant control their environment and we can. Does CT 6 say that the ancient pathway requires hibernation? No it did not……..hibernation pathways however are still in humans……..even though we no longer use them. But hibernation affects are built into hominids stage 3 and 4 sleep……..WHY? Ask yourself that. And you and other seem to think everything has to be perfect for this theory to work…….well it does not. It is directionally accurate because all mammalian biology uses this plan….See Wim Hof, Sherpa’s and vasper……and that plan was shown to you on January 9th in my bio hack and yesterday in Argentina when the baby survived in ketosis and in the cold………begin to ask yourself why this happens…….and stop looking for why not or how polar bears are poor examples……….it still works in them because the common ties are cold and they are all mammals………begin to ask WHY?

So APow, I am curious. What profound insight did you bring about that changes anything by being a “stickler for accuracy?” Want to make sure we are not just crossing t’s and that you have some point here.

@Cron23 I think it is safe to say that there is an agenda here. But it is my choice to moderate. And as Dean Dwyer aptly pointed out at Paleo fx we all have a duty to take out the trash on our own sites at times. If not we wind up with the lowest common denominator. Dean points at Paleo fx were just amzingly spot on and he got universal agreement from our panel. That was a panel that included me, Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson and Skyler Tanner. I have decided after speaking with Dean to take out a lot more trash now these days.

Cron23: Why be inaccurate if all that accuracy requires is a quick Google search? As I said above, the fact that few polar bears actually hibernate does not completely invalidate everything else said here. But when you’re developing a theory and corresponding treatment protocol, and recommending it for dozens of conditions, I think some reasonably careful scholarship (and careful scrutiny of that scholarship) is in order.

@APow – obviously our disagreements from the forum are spilling over. Your last comment is logical but it is not your modus operandi which is to troll Dr. Kruse’s with pointless crossing ‘t’s dotting ‘i’s objections with absolutely no substance or alternative theory.
Now that YOU personally have enlightened all of us to the semi hibernation state of the Male Polar bear what profound insightful thought you want to contributed w/your grand Google search.
There are many here you are interested in the implications and applications of his research along with NASA’s and various other industry and agencies discoveries. Not your ability to Google missing crossed ‘t’

@ Rebecca, I have the jaw problem for the last 10 years. It gave right sided head aches and pain around the cheek bones too (and obviously the jaw joint itself). In the beginning I thought it was something with my eyes, but no problem there. Then years later I think, maybe it’s some ear problem? Because sometimes the pain goes into the ear canal part. I went to the dentist and he was so dismissive and was like, ‘well maybe you clench your jaws or something…I don’t know.’. Gee, thanks for the no help! I did have a brace in my upper mouth when I was 10 yrs old or so to help with over bite. I declined the option of having full braces because I knew my parents couldn’t really afford it and I figured my teeth weren’t that crooked. I think my over bite was corrected a bit from the one brace, so that’s good. My teeth really aren’t that bad so I’m happy enough with them. The overbite and way they are shaped in the front is only b/c I sucked my thumb for too long of a time (LOL). Dr. Jack can attest to that as he was a dentist. I’m pretty sure that any problems I had/have are obviously not as severe as some people, but none the less I notice improvement for me!

A side note, I am QUITE lucky that my teeth are nice and white. I think they are whiter now in the last two months b/c of the more butter (grass fed) and CO (Nutiva) that I eat etc.

O yes, another thing was that I used to be very prone to cavities growing up DESPITE good dental hygiene. It used to boggle my mind that my brother would not brush his teeth, eat crap etc. and get less cavities than I did…

p.s. I’m 26…(almost 27 in a few days, lol). It’s almost embarrassing to list health problems at such a young age…but what can you do? Now I’m changing my epigentics and turning off the bad genes, and turning on the good ones.

@ APOW asking for you to provide a point to your dissents is not a personal attack. It is merely asking you to back up all your proclamations so that we can understand your naysaying. Please don’t get so upset.

@APow: Well what is wrong with directionally accurate? I suppose from an ‘academic’ paper sense you have to PROVE and give 100% accurate details. I still think you are missing the point of Dr. K. See it’s about mechanisms that exist within mammalian species that regardless if polar bears or humans ‘hibernate’ or not is not what he’s talking about. So the capacity for polar bears to have a ‘walking hibernation’ or for humans to have ‘hibernation built into us during sleep stage 3 and 4’ fits within a broad implication of ‘hibernation’. This ‘evolved’ hibernation is what links a pathway that we can use from long ago and use our modern wiring (of our brains) in such a way that we Optimize our own performance and bypass the mismatches we have created for ourselves due to our own ‘smartness’ from evolution. Hope you get it, and also realize that no, we do NOT need some 100% ‘accurate’ statement in order to make something ‘true’. So results don’t speak for themselves? Hmmm…OK.

Cron23 said: “Now that YOU personally have enlightened all of us to the semi hibernation state of the Male Polar bear what profound insightful thought you want to contributed w/your grand Google search.
There are many here you are interested in the implications and applications of his research along with NASA’s and various other industry and agencies discoveries. Not your ability to Google missing crossed ‘t’.”

I say i want results, i’m all good with being directionally accurate. i’m also ok with people crossing their ts and dotting their i’s.

there’s nothing wrong with what Apow said. i thank him/her for the contribution and i will continue my experimenting with CT.

keep posting Apow- i appreciate it. are you CTing? everyone of the “experts” agrees that cold adaptation in a net postitive- there is only disagreement about how to do it. let’s all share our experiences and knowledge.

HI Dr. Kruse, I seem to have taken a nose dive. I quit CT 2 weekds ago from the strong die off and lack of sleep. I have high mercury levels and viral infections, plus methylation problems. That is all I know for sure at this time. I am on PC pushes and will start methylation vitamins soon. I am not sleeping very well and I am dizzy. Do you think I should continue CT slowly? Would it help me detox the mercury and viral infections? Thank you

dr. k said he had a detox guidelines blog coming up, if i remember correctly. and don’t know how he could address every situation, though. my own guideline is to keep the diet as good as possible and keep doing my baby CT. even with just doing cold water rinses, i seem to be having some detox issues. so i don’t do the rinse every day. just as with intermittent fasting, i don’t do a cold rinse unless i have had a good sleep the night before. why be in such a hurry? if these are indeed detox symptoms, what is the harm in giving our bodies more time to process the toxins?

if dr. k does a detox blog, i hope he includes some case histories from his patients.

@Kami CT is a great reset for all fat cells and toxin removal……but if you have them you need to detox when using CT……there is nothing better for toxin clearance than cold, but you must ready to clear the nastiness……and you were not. Now you know.

Thank you. I hear you…..I am hoping that the PC push will help clear them along with improving my methylation. I don’t know enough about toxin clearance. I do hope you go into detail with this in a blog as I think more people have this problem than they know.
Do you know why some people store mercury? We tested my son when he was 12 and he had high Hg? Is there a genetic thing going on or was it passed from pregnancy?

Dear Dr Kruse. Thank you for your incredible work. I’ve been eating paleo for about 12 months and am following (playing catchup) with your posts, and have been doing the initial CT face-dunking etc for ~2weeks. My experiences with all this have been amazing and I am convinced you’ve discovered something amazing – thank you so much!

My reason for this post is my father-in-law is 72yo, has been active and healthy his whole life, ate meat & 3 veg for dinner and sandwiches for lunch – the usual for an Australian tradesman. He was always as strong as a Mallee Bull until diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago. He was given radiation which seemed to control it, but he was then diagnosed with bladder cancer last Sept. His bladder was removed in Jan this year in hopes of containing the cancer but it is slowly spreading into his hip bones. The prognosis is that he’ll remain active for the next 6 months or so and then his health will decline rapidly at which time he’ll receive more chemotherapy to stave off the inevitable – but it’s likely he will be dead within the next 12 months. I’m urging him to change his diet to remove grains, desserts etc and thankfully he’s reasonably receptive. He definitely has a zest for living but I’m concerned about overwhelming him with too much information for fear he will just switch off. Of course a miracle would be great 🙂 but do you think CT is a viable option or would you recommend against it in favour of a different strategy.

More good news – his wife (same age, same diet, same lifestyle) had a valve in her heart replaced with an artificial valve about 10 years ago and is taking buckets of medication daily – she hates being drugged but has no alternative. She has recently been diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s so I guess this relates to her as well. BTW we are introducing coconut oil into both their diets.

They are such wonderful, beautiful people I want to do everything I can to help them, so any suggestions from you will be received with great appreciation.

@Rohan his life is threatened……he must go 100% paleo. No Grains and No quarter! CT would help huge…..but no dairy and no grains……ketogenic paleo…….and lots of ice and CT. Cancer and Alzheimers are neolithic diseases from the same dietary sources only sculpted by different cytokine elevations related to their epigenetic signaling…….make them change now. Help them help themselves. Paleo it forward!!!!! Keep me informed.

Jack, Thanks for the suggestion of spot CTing the shoulder for surgery. The shoulder is feeling good for the first time in 7 months.
The numbness is better than when they gave me a local for the Dye injection last week. I wonder if it will ever be the protocol?
One thing that is strange I’m having tiny little spasm’s deep in almost like its healing itself. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do if they go in next week and find nothing! Thanks again Jack

Dr Kruse, my 18 year old daughter has a prolapsed disc which means she cannot put her weight on her right heel when she walks. Instead she is hobling on her toes until we meet the specialist. I have mentioned CT to her, but she is not keen on the cold. Perhaps if she saw your words of encouragement and a protocol to follow she may be steered away from surgery.

@Ray I use this daily in my clinic to treat disc disease. I just had a patient that come in yesterday and with one week she is 50% better and now able to walk. I can lead them to cool water but I cant make them drink it.

Jack, Enjoyed CT-9 in the tub Monday night and then fired up Chris Kresser’s latest podcast Wed night whilst CT’ing. The intersection between the two intrigues me so interested in your thoughts…

From CT-9, it’s now clear that one of the primary benefits of CT is cortisol stimulation. Chris’s podcast http://chriskresser.com/rhr-chronic-stress-cortisol-resistance-and-modern-disease discusses some new research on cortisol that health issues may not be result of chronically high cortisol per-se, but as with Insulin and Leptin, a cellular resistance built up to cortisol. If I understand right, the cell loses the ability to respond to the signal from cortisol to turn off the inflammatory response to an immune threat.

In light of prior exchange we had a few months ago (can’t remember which post) at the apparent pleiotropic effects of cortisol (i.e. reduces acute inflammation but may cause inflammation chronically), I’m wondering if CT’ing isn’t in some first-order type of way effectively a ‘cortisol reset’? Perhaps somehow triggering the cortisol pathway from the hypothalmus overcomes limitations of warm thyroid/adrenal pathways? Still, it’s to clear what this cold pathway might be doing to reestablish proper cellular sensitivity to cortisol?

Perhaps this also means CT is a therapy for adrenal fatigue? My son had a problem with low cortisol in high school that we got back to normal using low-dose cortisol therapy, but perhaps we should have just thrown him in a cold bath? Given the link between stress and cortisol, perhaps CT could give new meaning to “chill out” 😉

@Russ I am glad Chris is open minded on this issue. I have always thought highly of him and Masterjohn and really like both of their work in their podcasts together. In CT 6 i clearly laid out the point that in cold adapted humans CT destroys AF. The real problem with cortisol as most of us pointed out in the mastermind series at Paleo fx is that cortisol diurnal rythmns are destroyed in most modern humans fit or not. The reason in my view is due to light mismatches from technology. I mentioned this to many people those 5 days when i was in Austin…..that is why I advocate cold and dark after sunset. The biggest weight loss gains I made in 2007 where when I paid attn to light and added in CT to my regimen. What people do not realize about CT is that it make you LS very quickly, empties fat cells and kills them, and makes your insulin sensitive without exercise. In fact, I think the paleoshpere who is listening to me is now opening some books and finding out that CT depletes liver glycogen…….prior to my CT series I dont ever remember hearing this from anyone. No one was actively using cold the way I was. But the use of cold must come with a proper paleo diet that is more ketogenic……and not like most people’s paleo template because of the cell membrane chemistry requirements as cold decreases CM signaling. This is the only area where me and Ray Cronise do not see eye to eye. CT’s main brain affect is to increase POMC which is cleaved to alpha MSH and ACTH. ACTH in the brain generally reverses AF in my clinic but I would love to see some scientists begin to study this because it needs to be looked at. AF is so hard to treat in warm adapted humans and most docs default to hydrocotisone because of it. Most with AF also have severe underlying thyroid issues that wont resolve unless the adrenal is dealt with first…….this is why I push CT off the bat in these cases and not hydrocortisone.

From a poster at my forum:
You may find some of this information useful (from http://www.musclechatroom.com/forum/…on-therapy-101)
“Our hypothalamus regulates our maximum cortisol level by regulating the rate of synthesis of LDL-cholesterol into pregnenolone, via the hormone ACTH.

More ACTH increases the rate of synthesis of LDL-cholesterol into pregnenolone.
Less ACTH decreases the rate of synthesis of LDL-cholesterol into pregnenolone.

can i give you some i’m on your side cred? I think Kurt Harris is the nastiest paleoblogger out there. he banned me from his site early on when i kept questioning something he said. maybe he found my questions stupid and irritating.

i got banned from PH early on after being one of the first to sign up. i think my username was either v or v/mary. you can search that and still see my posts, but all my points were erased. i was banned because i posted a topic with the title :”Who is the most annoying person on PH?” my answer was melissa mcewen. i was sick of her saying that there could be no insults in the comments, but then she would often insult people herself. after she insulted kamal patel, i posted the thing about her being annoying and was banned lickedty split.

i looked over the thread where dr. k banned Apow. yes, he/she was only coming at dr. k from a critical standpoint and i didn’t see any posts where Apow talked about his/her own experimentation with CT. But if you think Apow’s criticism is over the top, i’m probably going to be banned here before long as well.

i think a lot of good stuff came out of the exchange with Apow because what he/she brought up was reasonable, and probably there are members (like Owl) who have similar concerns, but who just remain silent. so when Apow posts a criticism, the responses from dr. k and others are useful, not a waste of time, because lots of others may have the same questions Apow does.

there is so much tragedy surrounding healthcare the way it is practiced. i’m seeing that first hand with my mother’s late stage cancer. if i were a doctor, i would probably either become desensitized or driven to drink with all the suffering. i takes someone with a lot of compassion and courage to do what dr. k is doing in trying to really address all the suffering he sees going on now and needing some answer now. that being said, i don’t find the points Apow brings up to weaken the discussion. the back and forth only strengthens and clarifies it in my view.

@Weila We had the IP address of this person and trust me if you knew who it was you would not be sad to see “her” go. The tribe has spoken. I doubt you get banned…..bad Ct results do not get you banned…..acting like someone your not however does.

Jack, Thanks. It’s clear how CT helps cortisol production, but less so how CT might restore cortisol sensitivity at the cellular level.

…but also getting even more interesting re ACTH stimulating the cholesterol > pregnenolone pathway. Therefore, CT might also be an important LDL management technique via this pathway? This may explain the 20 pt drop in LDL I saw this month after early CT. Could be an especially important pathway for us APOE4’s who tend to high LDL levels?

Even though I have no weight or really visible health issues, your answer motivates me to keep experimenting w CT as like most people, in my daily ‘warm’ life, I’m sure I overstress my adrenals. Anyway, all good fodder for deeper discussion w Dr. Sebring when I see him in a few weeks.

Another secret! (Factor X has caused me serious time and study, thank you) I thought the tone of Apow was like ********, but I can think of a few others that would come across like that. Give us a name…please. Seriously, why hide their identity. I think if more ppl acting badly are outed, it would lessen the use of annoying anonymity.

After a month of CTing I am feeling pretty good. I look forward to my cold showers every morning and sometimes sneak in an evening one if it fits with my schedule.
Two observations:
1 – This week I have been wildly hungry when I sit down to eat. On Wed I had almost 1.5kg of salmon and sardines for dinner and last night I ate 2/3 of a 6lbs duck.
2 – I shaved my head last night and found I had a lot of dead skin on my scalp. Perhaps a die-off symptom?

Hi Jack- “Apow” is my ladyfriend, a psychologist who is even more critically-minded than I am. If I get some time, I’ll come by your boards and check out what’s going on, and be my usual perhaps overly-critical and sardonic self. My IP address will be located in downtown Boston, whereas hers, during weekday afternoons, will be west of Boston.

Dr. K – you handled the APow situation with class and aplomb. Well done.

I’m still loving my results from the Leptin Rx and CT (in my 5th week now). The weather has turned a bit cooler here in PA, and I’ve been enjoying the outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt while everyone else is freezing in jackets, pants, and hats. I’m enjoying my tub time more and more, and warm up much faster now, too (thanks getting adapted and to the suggestion on the forum to go naked for a while after CT). My mood is still fantastic, I’ve got lots of energy, I’m still gaining strength without much exercise, my weight/fat loss continues, and the libido is still revved nice a hot, red Ferrari! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t even realize how much room there was for improvement until I gave these protocols an earnest try. I’m so glad I did. Thanks for tossing this starfish into the (cold) water.

Jack,
I once emailed you about some questions. I think I have been watching from an arm’s length since last summer. I am a family doc in Maine who will be leaving to go to Virginia soon. We have similar backgrounds as two ex-New Yorkers. I like you. You have a massive set of cojones. I am still trying to grasp what you are cooking. I am a late adopter with these things. I do that for “new” drugs on the market. I am doing that for your recommendations. I will (and have) try them on myself first. I feel I owe that to my patients. Anyway, as a guy that has pushed the envelope my whole life, I want to support you in your efforts. If you think that some of the paleo peeps are busting your balls then you haven’t seen anything yet. Main stream media is going to make life hell for you. They will bring out the ivory tower docs to destroy your reputation. Get ready my brother for the fight of your life.

“Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty… For tonight, we dine in hell!”
King Leonidas, 300

@Doug so far all my theories point to two major things……a cold adapted life and a more keto version of the paleo diet. I find it amusing that somehow is characterized as radical, but if you say so I can live with it. I find CW of statins, and high carb low fat diet far more radical from an evolutionary lens.

I did enjoy the opportunity to lob some insults over at Richard, but I think Richard can handle it. And I don’t bear very much ill will against him (or Jack, for that matter). Nothing terribly wrong with CT, discussing biological mechanisms, and the like (I had my own go with ice baths a couple years ago). But I will continue to engage in heated internet discussion over the ideas of different people in the paleosphere. It’s kind of fun, and my thin skin is a little bit thicker now.

Anything new is radical. You are just the tip of the spear. And I do agree with you 100% that we have totally screwed up the statin and diet thing. Deep breaths. I am on your side and enjoying the ride. And…get this… we can all help each other as this journey continues. Your epiphany from the statue David (yeah, I haven’t listened and read most of your stuff) takes time to ripple out – even to us regular docs.

Hi Jack. Me again. Post-arthroscopy hip pain is worsening despite another steroid injection last week. Cannot understand why this inflammation is lingering? Doc says it will go away, but I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever be 100% again. Meanwhile, I’ve been taking ice baths (hips on down because it’s a small bathtub) every other day and icing my hip and spot-CTing my belly in between. I refuse to take any pain meds and I’ve been trying to rest (as much as possible with 3 kids) but it’s not getting any better. Should I step up the CT to every day or twice daily? Also, do I need to ice my neck in order to reverse my hypothyroidism? Thanks!

@jodi remember that litte lab I told you about that I was concerned about…..that is why I think this is an issue. It makes you “act more LR” and therefore, makes you more sensitive to pain. This is why I believe your pain is worse…..and taking steroids worsens it does nto help it. PM or call me…..

I can give you some unsolicited advice 🙂 As someone with hip issues (labrum tears), I’ve encountered a couple simple approaches to lessen the pain. Post-arthroscopy pain that doesn’t respond to a steroid injection may not be related to acute inflammation, per se.

Two things to potentially try: change positions as often as possible to avoid scar tissue being laid down in the wrong direction. Also, medium to high dose vitamin C is protective against certain nervous-system related pain. Lastly, ice massages can be a helpful adjunct, especially since you are used to cold.

Just finished my second cold bath (44 degrees). i skipped a few steps (compression shirt, bags of ice. i started with large ice packs on my torso and neck and shoulders for a couple of weeks with cold showers. For the first cold bath i did not use a timer and stayed in for at least 1/2 hour. that was stupid. i had a bit of hypothermia (i think). But that night i slept 11 hours and felt amazing. it just took about 7 hours to warm back up and i was completely knocked out. about 5 days later, today, i took an 8 minute 44 degree bath with a hat on and hands and feet out. i’m going to build up from here. but now i understand why Jack comes up with all these amazing ideas. after dipping in the cold i feel completely expanded, mentally and spiritually. totally invigorated for hours. I’m hooked. In addition, i’ve been an insomniac for most of my life but particularly since i had my uterus removed in 2010 and went through menopause. i relied on sleeping pills nearly every night and even then, had very poor sleep. For 3 weeks since cold therapy and following the circadian rules (particularly – no electronics after dark – i’ve been sleeping like never before. head hits the pillow and i’m gone. I’ve also added a sleep mask to blacken out the room. I used to run hot during the day and freeze at night, and this is gone. I’m 54 and healing. I’ve got about 15 lbs to lose and they haven’t budged yet, but they will. I’ve been low carb since last july and only lose a pound a month, so it’s been brutal, but hoping the cold will fix the rest. Thank God there are Drs. like you who are willing to take the big risks. I’m an Acupuncturist, and talking to my clients about this stuff in cold damp Portland OR has been futile so far, but perhaps after i’ve healed, they’ll listen up. Feeling grateful to you for all your work.

Hey i forgot to mention something. Perhaps you might consider doing what Jimmy Moore did and having a list of doctors and alternative medicine folks around the country who are following your protocols so that people can get support.

@Janet right now plastic surgeons are the most interested in what I have found and I have been getting quite a few emails from them. Several have already used pre op CT for their breast Cancer reconstructions flaps and found some amazing early success.

A little late here on polar bears (things move Fast here).
Some authorities define “hibernation” as “an inactive state resembling deep sleep”. Think chipmunks. You can pull them out of their nests and they are cold and look dead, but gradually recover. Bears don’t hibernate in this sense. They find a sheltered spot, and hang out there with slowed metabolisms.
What do bears think about during those long winter days in the den?

The quote which appeared in a number of comments above about “walking hibernation” is a typo; should be WAKING hibernation.
The big argument about whether bears “hibernate” or not is a simple issue of semantics, but makes a handy stick to hit people you disagree with.

@Lynnetlocal I am only going to say this once…..I used polar bears as an example of a cold adapt mammal in my podcast……whether they truly hibernate or does not matter for the CT 6 pathway. The one thing that is critical is that they are a mammal and cold adapted.

By the way, I really like the Easy Start Guide. Have you developed a short list for the most important lab tests that everyone should get? If you have already covered this topic please just refer me to the right post.

Since adding CT, does anyone else find they ‘heat up’ more than they did pre-CT? I find that after intense/heavy lifts my body heats up a great deal (especially in my head). I don’t sweat at all though (which, Jack, I recall you saying that’s a good sign??).

Jack, is this ‘heating up’ during workouts a normal response after cold-adapting for awhile? Why is this exactly?

@Adam totally normal because you are turning your pilot light on to begin to be an efficient burner of calories…….People constantly tell me how warm I am when they lean against me. The person that sat in next to me in the Audience at TED remarked at how warm I was in a cold TPAC auditorium…….I loved it.

@ Andrew: Yes, I think the dry skin is a mild die off. Even I still have flaky white fluffs of dead skin around my ankles (in particular). My hands are still drier than usual too. My heels are softer though, LOL. See above for other benefits I’m getting from CT.

I always keep in mind that the maximum effects from CT take about 12-34 months (depending on the person). Despite such good progress I have with it, I can’t believe it gets even better! Yay!

p.s. I just can’t understand eating anything else other than keto paleo. I don’t even like the other food. I know in summer and Fall it’s OK to raise carbs, but that’s how I prefer it, to circadian cycles and season. I think for me I’ll probably not even over do it anyway. (I still don’t know what amounts I’ll be using. I’ll just wait until June-ish to find out and see where I’m at, plus some possible blog updates in terms of amounts. I can guess that it’s still probably ~50g anyway.)

@Dr. Kruse – can you educate me (if you have already posted on it just let me know) on how gluconeogenesis is not stressful/bad for the body? Since CT depletes liver glycogen and one is ideally already on a kerogenic diet, I’d assume that they’d go through liver glycogen pretty quickly and have to get their glucose (for the brain, because ketones can’t supply all of it right?) from gluconeogenesis (the breakdown of amino acids/muscle fibers and triglyceride’s (glucose can be made from the glycerol part of a triglyceride right?)). This is one of the reasons why Ray Peat prefers fructose over glucose (preferentially fills liver glycogen) and I think this also is part of the PHD (get your glucose requirement directly from food instead of having to manufacture it). I know that carbs aren’t available in the winter but I’m just not sure how the body creates the glucose that it needs. And extending that thought, how would an elite athlete (one that has adapted over 24-36 months to CT and keto) fuel intense efforts with just fats and some protein? I’m not doubting it, I just don’t know how it’s done. Thanks!

@Mark It is not stressful, in fact our physiology is designed to use it perfectly well. With CT and in cold you easily deplete glycogen…..and burn fat. That is the point. The brain and heart run best on ketones contrary to what most tell you. The brain does not need glucose to function. In neurosurgery we know this implicitly because no specialty uses ketosis more or uses cold in combo than we do. CV surgeons are now using it for all their new assists devices. Most CV programs have cool tubs in their OR’s for these patients. Peats beliefs are all based upon publsihed biochem books. What we are talking about here is biochemistry of cold in humans that just is not well studied right yet. The key is branches of surgery are realizing the major benefits now. Im just shining light on this……and I am shinign light on how to use it clinically for wellness and in a surgical application. For too long ketosis has been pounded by the paleo community because they do not realize it is best used in cold and not warm. Many criticisms of the ketotoic diet by people like Colpo are spot on correct. But what few realize is that is like jet fuel for our engines…..when we are matching this diet int he cold…….few do. And this data is not in any textbook but when you look at mammals who don’t control their environment they are amazing athletes in nature…….and these abilities are seen in some humans who partially do it……Sherpa’s and Phelps. If youre looking into the literature or a textbook for this you will get a dry tap. But I have given you tons of real world examples of how humans do using this……just look at the little argentine baby from yesterday……she is a living example of this biology…….no one realizes that it is built into us……..from birth because we are mammals too. If you want to read mor eon this I believe Ned Kock just did a blog post about CT…….Go read what he wrote. He is saying the same thing I am except the haters like him more than me. Chris Kresser even tweeted the link out in the last week. Here is the link: http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2012/04/if-you-neat-is-low-maybe-you-should.html

it is all here…….I know it……you got to assimilate all this data. When you do you will get what I am saying loud and clear. Modern humans have been living against our biology since 1850 and we are paying dearly for it.

@Mark read this too…….From a summary of Nora Gegaudas talk at Paleo FX (and more insight into stress and inflammation and the importance of continuing on this path for our mental health as well as our physical!): (from: http://roosclues.blogspot.co.nz/2012…-function.html)… (thanks to Jennifer for posting on the Leptin RX thread)

These notes are for one section of a talk given by Nora Gedgaudas during the Paleo Summit. She was refuting the idea of safe starches, put forward by Paul Jaminet (author of The Perfect Health Diet), and discussing hypoglycemia. She explains that hypoglycemia only occurs in people who are (unnaturally) temporarily adapted to getting glucose from dietary sugars and starches, and that for people who are fat burners- which is what the human body is adapted for- mood and cognitive functioning are not dependent on blood sugar levels. The human body can make all of the glucose it needs in the liver from amino acids, there is no need to get it from the diet.

The exception to this, she explains, is when people have chronically depressed cortisol levels. What really caught my attention is that she says that this low cortisol production is not because the adrenals themselves have been “exhausted” by stress, which she says is an outdated idea. She says that cortisol output is not controlled by the glad itself, but by the brain. It is mitigated by the HPA (Hypothalamus Pituitary Axis), specifically by a group of cells inside the hypothalamus called the Paraventricular Nuclear cells (PVN). The level of cortisol that we produce depends on how these cells are stimulated- whether the balance of neurochemicals leans towards excitatory or inhibitory, but in particular by the presence of inflammatory cytokines. To rephrase that, low cortisol levels are caused by inflammation in the brain. Various stressors on the body result in the release of these cytokines, including chronic infection. This process can also impact our balance of neurotransmitters.

@Kev awesome find. http://blog.arkive.org/2011/01/polar-bear-nine-day-swim/ More CT proof in mammals. 22% body fat loss in 426 miles of swimming. Sounds just like Mike Phelps no? They both are mammals too. The only difference is the polar bear eats for the Pathway and Mike does not. I’d take the Polar Bear in a race because she is the better athlete.

@Aldert look at the GPS polar bear link right below……..that ability is even more impressive. Polar scientists did not know a bear could tolerate cold that long to survive…….they are now asking how and why? That may get physicians to begin to ask the same thing in the mammals they treat too. That biochemistry is built into every mammal and we are blind to it.

hi dr. k,
i see on your jack recommends section that you have books up by robb wolf and dr. cordain. why not recommend professor de vany’s book, especially since you have said he is the closest to cold-adapted in the paleo community. the first printing of his book had some mistakes in it which he has said he has since corrected.

Baby steps – At first just turned the shower nozzle to “cold” just before finishing. I could only stand about 3 seconds just on my backside. Now, 28 days later, I finish every shower with a cold rinse and can enjoy it for several minutes. I would NEVER have imagined I could do this … but I can! (..and I tend to be a bit more of a princess than an athlete! lol) 14.7 lbs lost in 28 dayshttp://regandy.blogspot.com/2012/03/slap-jack.html

Somewhat related to CT, vitamin A seems to “remodel” white adipose into brown and increase UCP1. Do you have recommendations for daily vitamin A intake? Does vitamin A itself decrease blood D levels? Thank you.

My husband complained today that I’ve been acting wildly moody and snippy lately for the past few days. The only two things that have changed are that after a year and a half of nursing my kid my cycle finally returned (before I started ct) and CTing. Do you think it’s a combination of the two or the CT? When will my moods regulate again? I must admit, I do feel a bit edgy, like one would on a crash diet or adderall (which I only know because I took it as a kid.)

@Alip When I hear this is in combination with CT it does not sound like just toxin dump. It could be a neurotransmitter issue……get urine and salivary testing done on yourself. I bet you get enlightened.

Jack, on a lot of these CT videos, people are dunking for a couple of seconds. Have you found it’s more valuable to be in slightly warmer water for longer, or near freezing water for brief duration? Also, my tap water is 43-44 degrees. I did my 3rd bath in this for about 8 minutes this am. How quickly do you feel it is safe to progress in duration? It was so much easier than yesterday and i kept it short just to be on the safe side. I feel fantastic. This is addictive.

Dr. K thank you for giving some background for your most recent bio hack. I can see now how you might have made the decision to go forward with this experiment. I still won’t agree with it 🙁 I think that is strongly based in having lived my life between life and death for the last 25 years. My mind doesn’t and probably never will understand how a person can choose to put themselves into this place by choice. I do get that to you that doesn’t appear to have been so as you were confident in your expected result.

I’m glad your patients are benefitting. I liked the video of Lonnie… he has a sparkle in his eyes and wow does he look younger than 80 years old!!

hi dr. k, saw you mention a. colpo on professor de vany’s site. i haven’t read a lot of colpo. are you familiar with his ideas on fat loss? do you two share a lot of common ground? i searched your name on his site but came up with nothing. what i get from a quick read of him is he feels low carb is bad for the thyroid and calories in calories out matter.

@V Anthony is all about warm adapted biochemistry pathways. like Robb and Matt he is pretty spot on. He hates low carb because like many see its limitations when the mammal is warm adapted…….VLC diets are the fuels for cold adapted mammals…….so I cant hate on anyone who remains blind to it……im hoping to keep showing many examples of how it shines through to us. Wait until you see the Navy Seal cold training I show you on performance……and how Navy Docs changed their tune in 2009. SOme paleo MD’s seem to be unaware of this data.

Dr Kruse,
I’ve been doing CT now for weeks and feeling pretty good. My wife suffers from secondary dysmenorrhea and I am wondering if CT would help her condition? We’ve tried everything. Had her hormones tested (saliva ) and things seemed normal. We are on a strict Paleo diet- very low carbs, no fruit and only excercise is walking for her. Weight loss with Paleo has also stalled. Any thoughts?

@Mike I can make a few recs based upon a discussion I had recently with a prominent endocrinologist from LA. I’d rather not put the recs here because they are radical……and they are her ideas…….but the mechanism is very plausible.

Thank you Dr. I understand. So you “might” be able to recommend CT for for dysmenorrhea? We’ve tried everything so far and she thinks the CT is sort of crazy but she is willing to try. Unless you have some more specific rec’s that you can post elsewhere….
Thanks again
Mikeb

these days the tap water from the cold shower has decreased something due to worse weather, and I’ve noticed that after 20 minutes or so I get a funny itching sensation on the shoulder. Just in the shoulder, not in other parts of the body.

I get sometimes confused with your CH ingest. Would it be possible to create a blog entry explaining how to modulate (with approximate amounts) CH along of the year. Somthing like your post about cyrcadian rhythms but with CH.

Re #142. As a native speaker of Russian, I took great plesure in watching the linked video on youtube. In the video, the old lady comments that in the middle of the winter it is mandatory to take advantage of the snow the way she does, in order to retain excellent health. When there is no snow, she just pours freezing water on herself, as the video shows. After the procedure she was going to have hot tea with spices and honey… The only comment to the video in a true Russian (and neolithic) manner says that the commenter would be happy to follow the suit, but cannot lift his behind from the chair.

@Riversedge when sun sets make sure your lights in the house also go off…..about a week out. embrace the dark and cold into surgery…..I would also suggest deep CT the area where the cuts will be made……when CT 10 comes out you will see implicitly why. The video might make you run your eyes and ears……it is shocking.

Hit my head badly skiing this afternoon during jump gone bad… (when will I learn my lesson?).
Ski patrol took me to triage who then transported me to the local ER where I spent the next 4 hours on oxygen and under observation. They released me a little while ago with a diagnosis of probably only mild concussion (thank you helmet!).

The worst thing was lying there, knowing what I needed badly (ice) while waiting for things to get worse (“under observation”). It took them 30min to get me a friggin’ ice pack for my neck.

Trying to get myself to CT but I’ve been shivering since the accident so not sure I can handle it. Besides the fact that my (male) roommate would have to spot me b/c well, I hit my head pretty hard.

I’m starting to get it. I think. I’m starting to get why you had to do what you did. I guess life will make you understand eventually. Why aren’t ERs full of ice tubs?

Sorry if digress, but I just read finding-your-primal-sense and was blown away. I have been reading your blog for three months now, very intensively for the last six weeks. I have been craving the technical stuff and skipped this touchy, feely stuff. Not sure if I lost time or if my reading this post came at the exact time I needed and was ready for it.
Got to go eat my BAB and go for a bike ride.

I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Jack for all he’s doing. I believe that at some point he will reveal to us in, say, CT99 that, in fact, he has found a way to use cold to warp the space time continuum, thus allowing him to actually stop time while he does all the stuff he does. Can’t wait for that blog. 🙂

Anyhow, I have seen criticism of Jack in various places on the web. Some of it is warranted, and when putting forth a theory or hypothesis, it is the responsibility of the researcher to make his case and respond to valid criticism. However, there is a lot of criticism over writing style and attitude and other more personal issues.

For me, I’m really just interested in efficacy. If Jack never successfully proves his evolutionary angle, that won’t affect the success of the protocols. And having had the chance to speak with Jack, my impression is that he is indeed providing advice that can be effective. On a few occasions now, I’ve gotten advice that may have a profound impact on my health. The Vitamin K2 blogs, for instance, were priceless.

I want a doctor to treat all of me, not just one organ or one lab result. Jack is doing his best to turn medicine exactly in that direction, albeit with his own twist. I support the entire community of Paleo and integrative medicine practitioners who are helping so many people.

For me, I just want everyone to polite and civil. We don’t need snarkiness and sarcasm. My health issues have taken me so far past such B.S. I don’t have the time for it.

So I just want to encourage Jack to continue to grow, serve, improve and effect the change that I think we all know his profession needs.

Well, I can see how others might have a problem with him telling us to turn out the lights and get eight straight, swim, eat our essentials, no between meal snacking… Its more popular than porn and its free. There must be something wrong with it. Its so six generations ago. Its on the internet and we should live pre-morse code, heck even pre- Gutenberg. We should just listen to the CW and not read or conclude or experiment against failure. We’re supposed to pretend that swimming in cold water isn’t invigorating and refreshing and healing. They have pills that do all that…NOT.

@Jack – I’m really dumbfounded at the extent to which mismatches and mistakes just compound and conspire. I suppose I knew that innately, but you have surely put an exclamation point on that fact for me. And it’s just really rare that docs bother to make the connections and unwind the tangled mess of yarn we’ve made with our health.

A friend just told me today about how he drew inspiration and insight from looking at how a person gets sick, knowing that the body was going through a process of rebuilding and strengthening itself.

I told him we need a paradigm shift. If we believe the YouTube video about Art De Vany, he hasn’t been sick in like 30 years. So I told my friend that when I see a sick person I see a body that isn’t optimal. Otherwise it would have nipped that illness in the bud and he wouldn’t be sick.

Lots of paradigm shifts are needed. I mean if you feed a cow a mush of corn, soy and discarded animal protein, you have to pump it full of antibiotics to keep it standing. And even then, you can’t really make it healthy and thriving. So how can we expect any different for ourselves.

Since you pointed to Dean’s blog on change, I thought I’d throw out another link here. Krista Scott-Dixon was at PaleoFx, presenting as a representative of the people at Precision Nutrition (PN). If you’re not familiar with them, they have, arguably, the worlds most effective and proven ‘system’ for transforming body composition. It’s all about change and developing habits. Commitment, community, and tracking habit compliance are the keys. It is a brilliant system and could be well applied to Dr. K’s Leptin Resest , CT, gut health, adrenal health … protocols.

@V (Re #277) I didn’t mean to translate every word she is saying, but you are right. The camera man says it’s -10C (14F) and asks whether she is cold. Replying to that, the old lady repeats several times that she is hot and points out at the steam coming from her body. At the beginning, she emphasizes that it is especially important to treat eyes with snow so they see better. And this video is referenced in comment #141, not #142 (my typo).

@ Gene K: In regards to ‘use the snow to treat eyes so that they see better’. As I’ve stated before in how it was pointed out to me that my eyes are not so lazy and droopy and more focused (which is result of CT), I just like to confirm. I had some pictures taken of me this weekend and my eyes are dead on focused to the camera. It is just so amazing! Dr. K already knows this, but I am just relating it to this video. I also noticed that my eye colour seems a bit ‘lighter’ and more radiant. I didn’t think that’s possible since my eyes are a very dark brown colour.

Hi Dr. K. I just posted a response to Michelle Norris on Keith’s blog about CT and wanted to post here too. I read her comment about how she hates the cold and lives in Texas for the mild winters and that no matter what your results are, she would never get in a cold tub.

Well I shared some of her feelings. I grew up hating the cold (now believe it was due to my low vit D levels, corrected now). I live in SoCal and 50s was cold to me. I used to vacation in Vegas and Phoenix in the summer just to get warm. I was all in for the leptin reset, but I resisted reading the CT series, telling myself I could never do that. But I started slow, face dunks, felt good. Okay, so then went to icing the belly, still okay. Then after reading success stories on the forum, I decided to do the cold tap water in the tub. Now I can’t get enough, an hour every night, so relaxing and I sleep great.

It changed my life. I’m not cold anymore. I sleep with the windows open. I drink ice water, which I never did before. I was uncomfortably warm for a little while, but that has passed. I still have some gut and adrenal issues I am working on, but am making progress in my own way. Just wanted to share, after reading Michelle’s comment made me realize how much I have changed in ways I wasn’t even aware of.

@Mischa I said at Paleo fx that most modern humans have no clue just how bad modern beliefs are for our biology. It does not suprise me one bit that Keith or Michele embrace modern beliefs. We will see how they serve them going forward. Kevin Cottrell, the other Paleo fx leader took my advice and got his labs checked and came away pretty surprised at what he found. We will be doing a blog on him because he too wants to get the message out to others at risk. It appears that the some of the leaders of Paleo fx do not want to challenge their own dogma and see if what they believe is actually good for them. I respect that……..but do not write a blog telling people that CT is bad when you are not willing to check your own self.

@Gladina I too hope my eyes will look younger at same point as my CT progresses.

Unrelated to the video, when I step under the cold shower I still experience a shocking sensation and then I get used and stay there quite easily. When I start with warm shower and change water to cold, the transition is very easy. I wonder whether this first shocking sensation should disappear as I adapt better.

today is my first day back to school after a 10 day spring break. right when i walked in my students were saying my stomach was a lot flatter. i have never never gotten that reaction ever. 2.5 years ago i looked like i was 6 months pregnant because i look normal everywhere except for my stomach. de vany paleo just 3 months in took me to looking 3 months pregnant and that is where i was for these years until RECENTLY. i am getting these results by doing cold rinses after showers- only about 3 or 4 times a week, trying to dress a little lighter, and watch my electronics exposure in the evening.

i had some glasses that were supposedly good for screening out blue light- maybe they do it, but they were hurting my eyes while i was reading the computer screen. so i just decided to not use the computer after sun down period and not wear those glasses.

in the beginning i went really low carb with no fruit. i was having more hot flashed at night and wasn’t losing weight, so i went back to my usual one or two pieces of fruit and i still am getting flatter. maybe i was having detox when i was lower carb.

another important thing was yesterday when it was so hot, i laid out in my swim suit, covered my face, and got sun on my front and back, 20 min each. i don’t have a deep sleep, but that night i slept like a dead person until 2:30. then i eventually drifted back to sleep.

i also gave up coffee like a month ago. so that along with more sun and more sleep plus i’m assuming the cold and paying attention to night light exposure is getting RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are your thoughts on chlorine in municipal water supplies and swimming pools? I’ve read some ‘authorities’ that claim our showers are dangerous, and we should use filters.

I definitely have more net exposure to the water, since I take multiple cold showers a day and sometimes baths. Does the CT negate the potential negative effects of chlorinated water? Do you advise limiting swimming in chlorinated pools? Is this issue blown out of proportion?

Re:chlorine- so does that mean we need to stop doing ct in our chlorinated pool? Here I thought my husband and I were right on track. We sometimes stay in our aprox 52 degree pool for up to an hour… Wondering if we need to go back to our shallow cramped bathtub?

Is there a way to tell if I am having a problem with it? I am on 120 mg of armour thyroid and it seems to be very well regulated now. Obviously, I’d love to eventually be cold adapted and not have to use any thyroid meds.

@Trisha Yes you can have a total halide assay…..to check them all. Some are urinary blood or salivary samples. You can check in with your doctor or functional medicine doctor about these tests to find out if they are a problem for you and then adjust.

Dr. K- I’m a paleo-prescribing and practicing family doc, bariatrician, and sleep specialist. I’ve been working with nutrition, supplementation, VLC ketogenic diets, sex steroid abnormalities (men and women), thyroid dysfunction, and adrenal fatigue patients for years. Trying to think outside the box to “put it all together.” All the while never quite putting the pieces of the puzzle together…until I read your blogs. Suddenly so much of what I’ve been observing makes sense when viewed from a cold genes-warm adapted view.
I’ve begun my own experiements.
Now I’ve got the hospital food service director following paleo. He’s permitted me to “hang-out” in the hospital refrigerator (45F) or freezer (8F).
For CT, which should I use? Is colder better?
Thanks for thinking outside the box.

I just discovered your blog (sep 2012) and have already incorporated the ideas into my on-going efforts to reverse conditions that nearly killed me in 2007-2008. Your insights deserve a wider audience, but I suspect that "noise" in your signal is contributing to poor reception in many cases. For me, multiple references to "Sherpa's" when you do not mean to imply singular possessive is more than a minor irritant. Please, Dr. Kruse, it's "Sherpas" when referring to more than one Sherpa.

Also, you've prefaced many descriptions of your ideas with warnings that they will "make my head hurt" or blow my mind. But in fact, the ideas are illuminating and thrilling – it's the tangled grammar, tenses and structure of your sentences that make MY head hurt.

If you read this as an attack, sorry, it's not. It is just an appeal to remove some of the distracting noise from your compelling signal.

I might be travelling overseas. I was wondering if you have any tips re travel and readjusting to timezones. On the plane i plan to take bottled sardines, salmon and raw butter. I cant rely on there meals. Considering the smell… i may have to duck to the loo to eat 🙂 I usually take home made beef jerky aswell. I suppose i could lather the butter on this.

In late 80s or early 90s I watched on television a program one episode of which was showing live demonstration where a couple of newborns with staphylococcal pneumonia who did not respond to an antibiotic treatment and were literally dying, were dunked in an ice cold water, outdoor at temperature minus 30, celcius. The infants were brought by their parents, unwrapped and completely dunked in a tub filled with ice. All infants survived and beat the infection.

This would not fly in America and all children would have been taken from their parents by State and the kindergarten teachers arrested and prosecuted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFAOXc9gmoM
I am still waiting for the registration to happen, your support staff is working on some glitches. I have few questions to ask when I am registered. One of the question be about CO2 role in maintaining good health. Russians have been successfully using Buteiko method and breathing devices based on this method to get rid of many health problems.

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About Dr. Kruse

Dr. Jack Kruse is a respected neurosurgeon and CEO of Optimized Life, a health and wellness company dedicated to helping patients avoid the healthcare burdens we typically encounter as we age. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurologic Surgeons, and Age Management Medicine Group.